Richard Hughes to retire in 2 weeks
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Richard Hughes to retire in 2 weeks
9 years 10 months ago
www.racingpost.com/news/horse-racing/ric...veTabs=last7DaysNews
By Lee Mottershead
RICHARD HUGHES, champion jockey in Britain for the last three years and one of the sport’s most successful riders for two decades, is to unexpectedly retire at the end of Glorious Goodwood in 15 days' time.
The 42-year-old, who hopes to have his first runners as a trainer this autumn, will bring an early halt to his time as a jockey and bow out at a meeting he has dominated in recent years.
Hughes, closely associated with the Hannon family since relocating from Ireland to Britain in the summer of 1994, took the first of his three championship crowns in 2012 - the same season in which he famously rode seven winners in one afternoon at Windsor - and was well-placed to pursue a fourth title this year with Ryan Moore set for a protracted spell on the sidelines and only Silvestre de Sousa ahead of him in the ante-post betting.
However, Hughes, son of the late leading Irish jockey and trainer Dessie Hughes, has instead chosen to forfeit his chance of becoming champion again in order to concentrate on running his own yard at Ken Cunningham-Brown’s Danebury estate in Hampshire.
Explaining the decision in his exclusive Racing Post Saturday column, Hughes - who will be active at the upcoming major yearling sales - said: “If you have backed me to win the title, I can only apologise sincerely. I really am sorry things have not panned out as I expected.
"The scale of what it is to come is bigger than even I had imagined. It truly does seem to be all-consuming at the moment. I want to concentrate completely on the training of my horses. That’s how it needs to be and that’s how it is going to be. And for that reason, I need to stop being a jockey, sadly sooner rather than later."
Among the major races won by Hughes are a number of European Classics, namely the Qipco 1,000 Guineas (Sky Lantern, 2013), Investec Oaks (Talent, 2013), Irish 2,000 Guineas (Canford Cliffs, 2010), Poule d’Essai des Pouliches (Zenda, 2002), Prix de Diane (Nebraska Tornado, 2003) and Poule d’Essai des Poulains (American Post, 2004).
The three French Classics were secured during Hughes’s seven-year tenure as retained rider to Khalid Abdullah, for whom he famously bagged both the July Cup and Nunthorpe Stakes in 2003 aboard champion sprinter Oasis Dream.
By Lee Mottershead
RICHARD HUGHES, champion jockey in Britain for the last three years and one of the sport’s most successful riders for two decades, is to unexpectedly retire at the end of Glorious Goodwood in 15 days' time.
The 42-year-old, who hopes to have his first runners as a trainer this autumn, will bring an early halt to his time as a jockey and bow out at a meeting he has dominated in recent years.
Hughes, closely associated with the Hannon family since relocating from Ireland to Britain in the summer of 1994, took the first of his three championship crowns in 2012 - the same season in which he famously rode seven winners in one afternoon at Windsor - and was well-placed to pursue a fourth title this year with Ryan Moore set for a protracted spell on the sidelines and only Silvestre de Sousa ahead of him in the ante-post betting.
However, Hughes, son of the late leading Irish jockey and trainer Dessie Hughes, has instead chosen to forfeit his chance of becoming champion again in order to concentrate on running his own yard at Ken Cunningham-Brown’s Danebury estate in Hampshire.
Explaining the decision in his exclusive Racing Post Saturday column, Hughes - who will be active at the upcoming major yearling sales - said: “If you have backed me to win the title, I can only apologise sincerely. I really am sorry things have not panned out as I expected.
"The scale of what it is to come is bigger than even I had imagined. It truly does seem to be all-consuming at the moment. I want to concentrate completely on the training of my horses. That’s how it needs to be and that’s how it is going to be. And for that reason, I need to stop being a jockey, sadly sooner rather than later."
Among the major races won by Hughes are a number of European Classics, namely the Qipco 1,000 Guineas (Sky Lantern, 2013), Investec Oaks (Talent, 2013), Irish 2,000 Guineas (Canford Cliffs, 2010), Poule d’Essai des Pouliches (Zenda, 2002), Prix de Diane (Nebraska Tornado, 2003) and Poule d’Essai des Poulains (American Post, 2004).
The three French Classics were secured during Hughes’s seven-year tenure as retained rider to Khalid Abdullah, for whom he famously bagged both the July Cup and Nunthorpe Stakes in 2003 aboard champion sprinter Oasis Dream.
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