Brian Hughes: I nearly gave up before winning jockeys' titles

Three-time Champion Jockey Brian Hughes has revealed that he nearly went back to Northern Ireland early in a career that has seen him become only the fourth jump jockey to ride over 200 winners in a season. 

Hughes found himself joining a very select list of riders when securing the 2021/22 title with 204 winners, with only Peter Scudamore, AP McCoy and Richard Johnson previously achieving the feat. 

However, it hasn’t always been plain sailing for the Northern Irish jockey, who enjoyed a good start to his association with Howard Johnson and Andrea and Graham Wylie after moving to England, but then struggled the following season. 

Hughes told Sporting Life in the fourth of their podcast series: “I was fortunate to ride plenty of winners in my first three months – in my first six months I rode 11 winners which was more than I had ever ridden in a season! 

“Graham Lee was stable jockey and would ride the likes of Inglis Drever so he would head south for the big rides and I would pick up the smaller ones up north. 

“Then Graham left to go to Ferdy Murphy’s and Paddy Brennan came in and I just started to struggle. 

“I was close to packing it in and going home because I wasn’t riding winners and I was struggling to pay the bills.  

“I actually had a job lined up with Nigel Twiston-Davies down south, but then I got a few rides for John Wade and I just started getting rolling again that 2007/8 season so I didn’t want to leave the north.” 

That decision proved a wise one, as Hughes blossomed under the watchful eye of Alan Swinbank, becoming Champion Conditional Jockey at the end of that campaign with 39 winners. Twelve years later, Hughes would go on to win the first of his three Champion Jockey titles. 

He recalled: “I’d been knocking on the door for a season or two but I would always struggle to keep up with Richard Johnson over the summer. 

“But that year I kept tabs on him and then he broke his wrist and I got a lead which I managed to keep around 20 before racing stopped in the middle of March. 

“It was tough to take when Harry Skelton beat me by only around 10 winners the year after, but then I worked even harder the next season. 

“I’d ride for anyone and everyone - there wasn’t a race I didn’t ride in - and it helped that Donald McCain’s horses were flying, and I managed to ride 204 winners.” 

Hughes modestly credits hard work and good luck for that incredible feat, but is clearly proud of the elite group of riders that he joined in April 2022. 

He said: "It meant more because of the achievement, but it was exhausting – everyone went out in Perth and I was just sat there in my hotel room! 

“You take those days for granted as you are focused on the next day and the one after, but you need so much to go right. 

“I had a good clear run with injuries, no suspensions, no abandonments – everything clicked.”