Racing at Sandown – Saturday 29th April
1:05
I’m due to have one ride at the Jumps Season Finale at Sandown on Saturday; Bertie’s Wish for Jennie Candlish in the opening handicap hurdle (1.05pm). He’s a Fast Company gelding who has been running well recently and he’s no back marker by any means. We hope he’ll run well and it would be great if I could get a winner on the final day of the season.
Summing up the season
While I’m a little disappointed not to have got to 200 winners, of course it has been a great season and I’m delighted and extremely proud to have become Champion Jump Jockey for the third time.
I prefer to look at the season as a whole rather than pick out individual crowning moments, and the most important thing is to thank everyone for their efforts over the past few months. Huge thanks go out to my agent and all of the trainers and owners of the horses I’ve been riding, but even more so to the hardworking stable staff who do everything for the horses.
I’m very lucky to have such good support and I certainly wouldn’t have the success I’ve had without the team behind me and the horses.
Goals for next season
It would be brilliant if I could reach 200 winners, but obviously the main aim is to win the championship again.
Of course, I’d love the opportunity to ride big winners at the big festivals like Cheltenham. At the moment, though, there’s not much I can do about not riding at those big meetings because I have to go where I believe the best chance of winners are and if they’re not at Cheltenham, then neither am I.
I’m not sure what I could do differently to be honest. I want to go where I know I can ride winners because that’s my job. Riding an outsider in a big race is not really what I want to be doing. Going to Cheltenham on a horse with a real chance would be fantastic, but at the moment we don’t quite have the horses to run there and that’s why I’m riding elsewhere.
I’ve ridden plenty of nice young horses this season and hopefully they do well over the summer because I’d like to think plenty will do really well next year.
There are too many to pick out any individuals, but things look healthy with next season in mind and I can’t wait to get going.
Brian Hughes blog 29/04/2023
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