TWO weeks earlier than last season, the reigning British champion National Hunt jockey Brian Hughes hit the 100-win mark for the current campaign when landing a double at Bangor on Wednesday.

The south Armagh native didn’t have the best of starts to his day at the Welsh track as the first of his four rides, the Richard Hobson-trained 4/6 favourite Our Follet, fell three out in the four-runner three-year-old hurdle.

Hughes, whose remaining three rides were for Donald McCain, then landed the following near two-and-a-half-mile handicap hurdle on the French-bred Nayati, was beaten six lengths into second on the 13/8 favourite Ivar, another French-bred, in the extended two-mile novices’ hurdle before rounding off the day with victory in the concluding two-mile, seven-furlong novices’ hurdle on the German-bred Maximilian.

Hughes also recorded a double at Sedgefield last Thursday week while, on Saturday at Kelso where he filled the runner-up spot in two races, the 37-year-old landed the near three-mile novices’ handicap chase on the James Ewart-trained Brayhill who was having his fifth racecourse start and his first over fences.

That 2015 Sholokhov gelding pulled up in three of his five point-to-point maidens as a four- and five-year-old when in the care of Colin McKeever whose son Graham, having purchased the bay for just £4,500 at Goffs UK’s Summer Sale at the end of July 2020, saddled him to win twice in three starts that autumn.

Second outing

Under Mikey Sweeney, Brayhill won his maiden on his second outing for his new yard at Portrush in October, beating Vaucelet by a head, and then claimed a winners’ of two at Rathcannon the following month.

Interestingly, Maximilian, a six-year-old chesnut gelding by Adlerflug, won his maiden at the same Co Limerick track in October last year on his only run for Donnchadh Doyle.

“To reach 100 winners, and to do it earlier than last season, feels good. I had a great summer and September also went quite well,” Hughes told Great British Racing. “I got to 80 winners by the end of September so I thought I may have reached it in October, but we’ve had some steady weeks probably because of the quicker ground at this time of year. It’s been a good start so no complaints, we’ve still got a lot of horses to run so plenty of opportunities.”

Asked about winning a third title, Hughes replied: “This summer’s been nip and tuck with myself and Sean Bowen and I’m lucky that I’ve now got a bit of a cushion (100 to 69 by close of play on Wednesday), but it’s not a foregone conclusion yet. I need to keep my head down and work hard and keep improving.

“I always want to improve, I always want to be making progress, last season could take some beating, but we’ll give it a go. The yard is flying and we’ve got a lot of winter horses, we’ve not quite scratched the surface of what we’ve got yet, but we’ve got a good team and the yard is going from strength to strength.”

Fox takes three

Also over jumps across the water, Co Sligo native Derek Fox partnered three winners in the period under review while there was a win on the flat last Thursday week at Chelmsford for Darragh Keenan, who also hails from the Yeats county, and, further afield on Friday, for Co Down-born Patsy Cosgrave at Meydan.

Fox’s winner at Hexham last Friday, the Lucinda Russell-trained De Legislator, who landed the two-and-a-half-mile novices’ hurdle as the 4/9 favourite on his track debut, was bred by Gareth Metcalfe. The five-year-old Shirocco gelding, who won his maiden at Oldcastle in April on his only start for Tom Keating, is the seventh of nine foals, and the second winner, out of the point-to-point-placed Old Vic mare Reynard’s Glen, a half-sister to Sir OJ, etc.

The Leslie Laverty-owned and bred Lily Of The Glen, recorded her first win on her 13th start, when landing division two of the extended 10-furlong handicap at Dundalk on Wednesday. The Red Jazz four-year-old is again being trained by Natalia Lupini who had charge of the chesnut at the start of her career before she spent time with Ado McGuinness and then Lee Smyth for whom she ran early last month.