The jockeys’ title leader has four chances to increase his lead over the injured Richard Johnson at Doncaster
Brian Hughes pointed out after a fall in the first at Wetherby on Thursday that the jump jockeys’ title is “by no means an open goal” despite Richard Johnson’s absence for at least four weeks after suffering a broken arm earlier this week. But it is now overwhelmingly likely that he will end the season as champion, and the fact that he could pick himself off the floor yesterday and then ride the winner of the feature event at 16-1 shows why.
Even before Johnson’s painful misfortune, Hughes was riding like a champion, with a 21% strike-rate overall since May which jumped to 24% in December, and he has four chances to add to his lead over Johnson on the Friday Doncaster card.