Brian Hughes' quest to be No 1 is all about ambition and dedication

EXCLUSIVE: Brian Hughes’ quest to become No 1 is all about ambition and dedication as he is crowned Champion Jockey for the third time in four years… but the serial winner warns he will never be as good as AP McCoy

• Brian Hughes has been crowned this season’s Champion Jockey for a third time
• He has become one of only four jockeys to champion 200+ winners in a season
• The 37-year-old is pursuing a relentless path to success in the sport he loves 

For much of the last 30 minutes, Brian Hughes has talked at length about how he is greedy, obsessive and selfish and lives in a lonely world.

Hughes is the most prolific National Hunt jockey in the business and on Saturday at Sandown Park, he will be crowned champion for the third time in four years. The 60,000 miles he has clocked up on Britain’s motorways in the past 12 months have led to 864 rides, 164 of which have been winners.

His quest to be number one is relentless and that might lead you to think his company is difficult. If so, think again. What Hughes, a devoted dad to Rory (five) and Olivia (four), classes as greed and obsession is actually ambition and dedication.

As for being selfish? That point is disproven when he looks out of the weighing room window at idyllic Hexham racecourse, where we speak, and he sees his colleague Derek Fox, who earlier this month partnered Corach Rambler to a famous success in the Randox Grand National winner.

‘Great lad… I’m absolutely delighted for him,’ Hughes says – he’s smiling and, clearly, he means it.

Brian Hughes is the most prolific National Hunt jockey in the business and his dedication is a testament to the sport

Hughes’ (middle) quest to become the number one National Hunt jockey in the sport has been relentless

Hughes (left) has clocked up over 60,000 miles in motorway driving to different races over the past 12 months

So it makes the subplot behind that observation even more fascinating. Had Fox not passed a medical on Grand National morning, Hughes would have steered Corach Rambler into history. How does a man so committed to winning cope, then, when the biggest winner of all slips away?

‘There’s always next year, isn’t there?’ comes the sanguine reply. ‘You’re always chasing dreams, aren’t you? You have to dream of bigger and better things. Some of my dreams have never arrived but there you go… You just keep chasing. The best day is always the next day.’

What makes Hughes a little different to previous champions is that he often finds himself on the outside looking in when Cheltenham takes place; he has ridden three Festival winners during a career that has spanned three decades but headlines and recognition are not what he wants.

‘I’d love to ride at Cheltenham (regularly) but the yards I work for don’t tend to have the runners,’ he explains. ‘Jockeys don’t have the fame of footballers and I’m glad about that. Everyone gets into this because of the animals – you love the horses and you would do anything for them.’

And he will go anywhere for them – this past week alone he has clocked up more than 1500 miles. Hughes, 37, lives in North Yorkshire; he has ridden at Ayr, Stratford-upon-Avon, Hexham and Perth as well as going to Cholmondley, in Cheshire, to do a schooling session for his boss, Donald McCain.

The alarm, most days, has gone off while it has still be dark and his duties at home have included exercising some of the horses his wife, Luci, looks after including a strapping point-to-pointer called Mount Mews, who is now 12 but charges around like he is a sprightly juvenile.

‘People see the end product, where it be a big festival or a nice sunny day at the races, he explains ‘But the work that myself and other jockeys put in to get to that point. It’s a lot of long hours, getting up early, riding out and then going to different tracks.

‘You don’t say to yourself; “yeah, I fancy going racing today!” It is a selfish lifestyle because it is all about you. A lot of the time I’m never there. A person with a ‘normal job’ is there at night and the weekends.

Hughes is often on the outside looking in at Cheltenham

‘When I get home, I will sit and watch TV with Luci but I will always have the iPad there, with an eye on that looking what could be next, thinking “might I get a ride there?” That’s just how it is.’

Hughes grew up in South Armagh, idolising the great Northern Irish jockeys Richard Dunwoody, Tony Dobbin and McCoy. The way he speaks, with that relentless desire and focus on the next success, makes it is easy to see a similarity with the last-named.

‘The only similarity between me and AP is that we both wore riding breeches,’ Hughes, whose first success in Britain was at Newcastle on November 26, 2005, interjects. 

‘I’m not in his league and I never will be. I always feel like I can do better.’

Yet that could be McCoy speaking. This is not comparing what they can do in the saddle but there is a reason Hughes has overcome the odds of being based in the North to become champion rider and that is the insatiable desire to reach first place.

He and McCoy, along with Richard Johnson and Peter Scudamore, are the only men to have ridden 200+ winners in a season. It takes a special character to put up the miles and the falls, the fasting and sacrifice and never factor in this is a profession where an ambulance follows you around.

On Saturday Hughes was crowned Champion Jockey for the season at Sandown Park

Hughes (pictured) is one of just four jockeys in history to have ridden 200+ winners in a season

Hughes admitted he will never be in the same league as one of the sport’s greatest-ever jockeys AP McCoy (right)

‘Three of them, actually’ Hughes clarifies. ‘Just to put it into perspective. But you know what? I don’t ever think about them. I’m not scared of injury. If I break a bone, it happens. If I fall and I’m sore, I don’t care. But what happens if I’m out and miss winners? That’s my fear.’

There will be nothing to fear at Sandown, where his mum, Mary, dad Brian and Elaine, one of his five sisters, will join the celebrations. They have every reason to be proud about the reputation he has forged but they will know better than anyone: Hughes has not reached the top of this mountain.

‘The title is as much for my family as it is for me,’ he says. ‘Luci is almost like a single parent. She’s going to the events with the kids on her own, while I’m away at the races. They have to sacrifice as much all year as I have. But you have to keep on going. It’s why I’m always looking forward.’

With good reason. The new jump season starts at Warwick on Monday. It means more miles on the road – but more opportunity to follow those dreams.

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