IT has been a pretty quiet season to date for the former three-time British champion jumps jockey Brian Hughes, but the Co Armagh native proved at his best last Saturday at Aintree, where he landed the featured Grade 2 Old Roan Chase on the Donald McCain-trained Minella Drama.

This was a third win in the two and a half-mile chase for Hughes, who partnered the Brian Ellison-trained Forest Bihan to victory in 2019 and, three years later, was successful on board the Richard Hobson-trained Riders Onthe Storm. Hughes brought his tally for the 2024/25 campaign to 29, when visiting the winner’s enclosure at Ayr on Monday.

Also over jumps in Britain, Derek Fox recorded a double on Saturday at Kelso, where Danny McMenamin was on the mark, as he was at Newcastle on Thursday.

Also on Thursday, but at Stratford, Daire McConville partnered his first winner of the season, when the Martin Keighley-trained Springs A Girl landed the opening two-mile, six-furlong mares’ maiden hurdle. Caoilin Quinn got among the winners at Bangor on Tuesday.

Ewing in form

On the home front, Sam Ewing was very much the man in form. In the period under review, he first partnered the former Patrick Turley-trained Shecouldbeanything to victory in the near two-mile, three-furlong mares’ chase at Clonmel on Thursday for the Gordon Elliott yard.

On Saturday, he rode a winner for Elliott at Galway where, the following afternoon, the pair combined to record a double.

On the flat, Dylan Browne McMonagle was on his travels again last weekend and he landed the Group 1 Criterium de Saint-Cloud last Sunday on Joseph O’Brien’s charge Tennessee Stud, a two-year-old Wootton Bassett colt bred by the trainer’s mother Annemarie.

The following afternoon, the Co Donegal-born jockey was in action at Galway, where he recorded a treble for O’Brien to bring his tally for the year in this country to 89.

In Britain, Darragh Keenan landed a treble at Southwell on Monday.

TRAINED locally by Nigel Twiston-Davies, The Newest One landed the three-mile, one-furlong amateur handicap chase at Cheltenham on Friday in the hands of 5lb-claimer Toby McCain-Mitchell.

This was a third career success, and a second over fences, for the nine-year-old Oscar gelding, who was bred by Ronald Brown out of the Turgeon mare Thuringe, dam previously of course of the multiple Graded winner The New One (by King’s Theatre).

Under their Foxleigh House banner, the Brown family have just one entry in the upcoming November National Hunt Sale at Tattersalls Ireland.

Lot 766 is a Workforce filly, who is the first foal out of the Requinto mare Katie Parnell, a half-sister to six winners including the blacktype performers Gusda (by Lend A Hand), Molly Childers (by Stowaway) and Thomond (by Definite Article).

There were plenty of supporters on hand to greet the Fiona McStay-owned and bred Glens Lullaby back to the No 1 spot, following her 13-length win under Finny Maguire in the Irish Stallion Farms EBF INH mares’ bumper at Wexford on Sunday.

Trained by Peter Fahey and sent off as the 10/11 favourite in the seven-runner field, the five-year-old Mount Nelson bay is the fourth of seven foals, and the second runner and winner, out of the King’s Theatre mare Glens Melody, whose 12 wins included the Grade 1 David Nicholson Mares’ Hurdle and the Grade 1 Irish TBA EBF Mares’ Hurdle.

IT would have been a bust on the point-to-point front last weekend, if it hadn’t been for David Christie, who saddled John Hegarty and Jenny O’Kane’s Winged Leader to land the open for novice riders at Tattersalls last Sunday under Josh Williamson.

There was, however, a good bit of success for former northern-trained pointers, such as Intense Approach, who justified favouritism in the three-mile novices’ hurdle at Cheltenham on Saturday for the John McConnell yard.

The Jack Hobbs gelding won a four-year-old maiden at Farmacaffley in February 2023 on his only start for Warren Ewing.

On Sunday, the former Stuart Crawford-trained Imperial Saint, who landed an adjacent hunts’ maiden at Toomebridge in May 2023, won the two-mile novices’ handicap chase at Aintree.

On Wednesday, Paul McAleese’s former charge Hymac, an eight-year-old Ask gelding, claimed the opening near two-mile, six-furlong novices’ hurdle at Newton Abbot.

Angel wins on way to sale

HOPEFULLY, there were/will be plenty of locally-connected horses winning at the Ladbrokes Festival of Racing yesterday and today at Down Royal, as it has been pretty quiet over the past week.

Andy Oliver maintained his good recent strike-rate, when saddling J.P. Ledwidge’s Marble Angel to land the seven-furlong apprentice handicap at Dundalk last Friday evening in the hands of Jack Kearney.

This was a third win for the four-year-old Harry Angel filly, whose travelling companions to the Co Louth track, Ozark Daze and Dr Waksman, finished second and fourth in the extended 10-furlong maiden that concluded the meeting.

All three were then transported over to Newmarket, where they were among a 14-strong entry from Oliver’s Stragrane House Stables at Tattersalls’ Autumn Horses In Training Sale.

The trio found new homes, the winner faring worst when making just 12,000 guineas, but Ozark Daze was purchased by Jack Davison Racing for 40,000gns, while Dr Waksman was knocked down to J.P. McGrath Bloodstock for 25,000gns.

Of the other nine lots who came under the hammer (there were two withdrawals), the highest price was achieved by the dual winner Bright Stripes, a three-year-old Starspangledbanner colt, who was knocked down for 145,000gns to Te Akau Racing’s David Ellis and will continue his racing career in Australia.