The dream home is up north for consistent champion Hughes

IT WAS fairly apt that Brian Hughes recorded his 200th winner of the season on a horse called Dreams Of Home in Perth.

Champion jockey for a second time, Hughes is not the flashiest of riders. Only one of his successes throughout this campaign have been in a graded races. He did not have a ride at the Cheltenham Festival or the Grand National and isn’t associated with the bigger trainers in the country.

But what Hughes (pictured) has achieved is extraordinary. He has simply bossed the northern circuit and has got his reward for his dedication on a daily basis. When you scan through the racecards in Scotland and in the north of England, it’s always wise to keep a close eye on what Hughes is riding.

The Perth Festival was the perfect place for Hughes to become just the fourth jockey in history to ride 200 more winners in a single season. While powerhouse stables primarily target the major meetings at Aintree, Cheltenham, Kempton and Sandown, Hughes and trainer Donald McCain kept operating at a 20-per-cent strike rate all season long.

And that’s what being a champion jockey involves.

Hughes is driven by winners and it doesn’t matter where they come from. He’d rather ride in meetings where he’ll have a full book of rides and regular chances of winning than riding a rank outsider in a big Festival that’s his only mount for the day.

His win on Dreams Of Home on Wednesday was no gimme. The type of solid horse that had a favourite’s chance but there were three other plausible candidates in a trppy five-runner race. Hughes judged the pace perfectly from the front to win by half a length from the Gordon Elliott-trained Coach Carter. A solid ride.

When AP McCoy and Richard Johnson retired, Hughes was waiting in the wings to be a champion jockey and has his reward for remarkable consistency. He has the dream home and it’s in the north.