Hughes to the four for best yet
Brian celebrates glory day at Ayr
Racing is a numbers game and two brilliantly talented young men underlined that last week when they posted significant milestones in their careers.
Brian Hughes, by far and away the best jockey riding in the north at the moment, came to Ayr last Wednesday with five rides to look forward to – and left with four winners!
It’s the first time Hughesie has achieved four winners at Ayr although in the past he has ridden five at Musselburgh.
He gave a master class in race riding at the Craigie track on Wednesday and his winners were for four different trainers.
First up was Acdc for Chris Grant and Brian made this look easy as he tracked the leaders, made smooth headway in the straight and won by a length and three quarters.
Win number two was on Attention Seeker for Tim Easterby and this was as easy as pie with the seven- year- old mare crossing the line in the two mile four furlong handicap hurdle five lengths clear of her nearest rival.
Lough Derg Jewel gave Brian his third success on the day and this Donald McCain trained gelding shouldered top weight to land the two and a half mile handicap chase.
The closest finish of the afternoon came in the feature race, the Book Now For The Ayrshire Wedding Show handicap chase over three miles when Brian produced a storming late finish on the Dr Richard Newland trained Catamaran Du Sueil to win by a short head from Kim Bailey’s Knockanrawley.
That gave him a 556- 1 four timer and I’m sure more than a few punters lined their pockets thanks to Brian.
The other notable milestone last week came when Keith Dalgleish trained his 100th winner of 2017 with Chanceanotherfive winning the bumper at Newcastle on Friday. That made it 16 wins over jumps and 84 on the Flat for the year and this is the first time in history a Scottish based trainer has hit the magic ton.
It couldn’t have happened to a more hardworking individual who, as I pointed out last week, just keeps improving year after year.
Keith is already stocking up on yearlings who will run as two- yearolds next year and will continue to be very active at the sales over the coming months ensuring he has even more ammunition in 2018.
There was talk a while back that he may be tempted south to train at Newmarket but I get the impression that this highly ambitious trainer is happy with the facilities at his disposal at his Carluke stables and that he will remain in situ for many years to come.
It will became increasingly difficult to continue to improve year on year but I am sure he will and before this year is out I’d expect another 15 or so winners from the yard.
In addition to all weather runners, Keith has a small but highly capable string of jumpers and his horse boxes will be commuting between Carluke and the likes of Newcastle, Wolverhampton and Southwell on a regular basis.
I think his aim next year will be to saddle some Group winners as he continues to improve the quality of his horses as well as the quantity.
But in the meantime continue to follow this stable on both codes and I am sure you will make a healthy profit.
Finally a word of praise for Ayr born jockey Lee Newman who now rides in Western Australia.
Lee had been racking up the winners since returning from injury and is probably riding better that at any time in his career.