Under The Radar: Cian Hughes reveals three horses to follow

Launch Time was racing for the first time in exactly four months when he lined up for the one-mile handicap at Leopardstown on Sunday, but Cian Hughes has happy that he was fit enough all right.  

“He doesn't take much work,” says the trainer.  “He was working well in the lead up to the race.  We had him on Mornington Beach during the week, and he seemed to be in great form.” 

Cian is based just outside Kilcock in County Kildare, about 30 kilometres west of Dublin, on the road to Summerhill.  He is about an hour from Mornington Beach, but he takes the horses there on Sunday mornings, and they love it.  Just about every winner that he has trained has spent time on Mornington Beach. 

Just three horses have run for him on the flat thus far in 2026, and all three have won. Thompson Gunner won a 10-and-a-half-furlong handicap at Dundalk in mid-January and Without Love won another handicap over the same course and distance two weeks later.  Launch Time on Sunday was just his third individual runner on the flat this year. 

“Launch Time ran well at Navan last September and he ran well there again in October, but he just wasn’t getting home over the 10 furlongs.  Then he ran well for us over a mile at The Curragh later in October on heavy ground.  We thought that he would go well at Dundalk in December, but he just didn’t enjoy it.  He likes to get his toe in a little bit, and he just didn’t like the surface.  The ground at Leopardstown on Sunday was ideal.” 

Stall 17 was wide enough in Sunday’s race, but he was away well and Robbie Colgan quickly had him settled into his racing rhythm just behind the leaders in his first-time cheekpieces.  He was four wide as they left the back straight, but he travelled well, and he was the only horse who was still on the bridle as they left the two-furlong marker behind them.   

“I was happy watching the race,” says Cian.  “Robbie gave him a lovely ride.  He had ridden him before in races and he has ridden him work, he has great experience and he knows this horse well.” 

Cian watched as Launch Time and Robbie Colgan moved up easily to join the leader on the run to the furlong pole, and then as the rider got lower in the saddle.  When asked to pick up, Noel Flanagan’s gelding picked up smartly to hit the front deep inside the final furlong, and he kept on well enough to get home by three parts of a length. 

“I said to Robbie, he’ll do it all on the bridle.  He’s very professional, he travels strongly, and he thinks it’s over when he hits the front.  Robbie was great on him, delivered him with a perfectly-timed run.  It was great that he won, I was delighted for the horse and for the owner Noel Flanagan.” 

Sunday was a big day for the trainer, Ballysax Stakes day at Leopardstown, a multiple Group-race day.  He led the horse up himself.  He just wanted to be sure that everything was right.  And 50 minutes after Launch Time’s victory, he watched on a screen at Leopardstown as his mare Knocknagoran Lady, racing in the same Noel Flanagan colours, finished third in a three-mile handicap hurdle at Down Royal. 

“I was delighted with Knocknagoran Lady’s run too,” says the trainer.  “She had been a bit disappointing at Naas on her previous run, but she just doesn't handle that heavy ground.  She was much happier on the better ground at Down Royal.  Hopefully she’ll pick up a race now during the summer.” 

Cian has a depth of experience with horses.  He has worked for several different trainers, experienced different methodologies.  He was with Paul Flynn and John Mulhern when he was younger, before moving to Oliver McKiernan, for whom he rode his first point-to-point winner.   

He went to Martin Pipe’s for what was supposed to be work experience for one month, but stayed for two seasons before coming back to work with Tom Taaffe.  He started riding out for different trainers then too, Gerry Keane, Philip Dempsey, Gordon Elliott. He continued to ride in point-to-points, and he started keeping a few horses of his own, buying and selling. 

“It was great to get the experience that I got with a different trainers,” he says.  “It was great to see the different methods that different people have of doing things.  You’d pick up bits from all of them, and I’d hope that that stands to me now.” 

Sweeney Tunes finished second in a point-to-point at Loughbrickland in 2010 before being sold on to Gigginstown House Stud and Paul Nolan, for whom he won the Grade 2 Nas Na Riogh Chase and finished fourth in Liberty Counsel’s Irish Grand National. Cian trained Chantry House to win a point-to-point at Tattersalls Farm in 2018, and the Yeats gelding went on to win a brace of Grade 1 races, the Golden Miller Chase and the Cheltenham Festival and the Mildmay Chase at Aintree, for JP McManus and Nicky Henderson. 

Ask him if he is more flat than National Hunt, or vice versa, and he is non-committal.  

“We do a bit of everything!” he says.  “I enjoy both.  I don’t mind as long as we have a nice horse.  We do a lot of breezing and pre-training too, and, if an owner wants to leave a horse with us, that’s great too.  We’re looking forward to the summer now.” 

We were obviously delighted with his win at Leopardstown on Sunday.  He was raised 7lb for that to a mark of 56, but he remains within the 0-60, so we’ll look for another similar contest for him now.  There’s a race at Cork in two weeks, and there’s another one at Gowran, so maybe one of those.  He likes at least a little bit of a cut in the ground, so we’ll want to get him out again now before the ground gets too fast.  He cost just 1,000 guineas as a foal, he was weak as a two-year-old, but he’s strengthening up all the time, he’s definitely a stronger horse this year.  He could jump a hurdle, too.  

He stayed on well to win over a mile at Dundalk in January in first-time blinkers.  He’s on a little bit of a break now, but he’ll be back for a summer campaign.  His turf rating is a little bit lower than his all-weather rating, so we’re looking forward to getting him back on grass now. 

He did well to get home by a neck at Dundalk at the end of January after being short of room two furlongs out.  He had to switch and deliver his challenge towards the centre of the track.  He is another who is on a little bit of a break, but he will be back soon too.  He stays well, he gets a mile and a half well.