'I always feel I've stuff to prove' - a day with Brian Hughes and Harry Skelton
Lee Mottershead talks to the two riders as the battle continues at Cheltenham
Harry Skelton gets to Cheltenham first. What really matters is who holds sway when he and Brian Hughes leave Sandown.
It is the tightest of tussles. Hughes, the sport's reigning champion jump jockey, started Tuesday at Southwell with a single-winner lead over Skelton. He ended the day two winners behind. For the first time in this absorbing duel, the challenger arrives at a racecourse in front. With only a handful of the season's days still to be played out, he is also on what should be more naturally his stomping ground.
As Skelton enters Cheltenham's temporary jockeys' changing room, Hughes is in the closing stages of the journey from his North Yorkshire home. He has one championship trophy to his name but wants another. More than that, he believes he needs another. Still awaiting him is a tour of happy playgrounds. There are two days at Ayr, afternoons at Bangor, Hexham and Sedgefield, plus three consecutive shifts at Perth before the Sandown finale next Saturday. The cock of the north has many days in the north to exploit. This is not one of them.
Read the full story
Read award-winning journalism from the best writers in racing, with exclusive news, interviews, columns, investigations, stable tours and subscriber-only emails.
Subscribe to unlock
- Racing Post digital newspaper (worth over £100 per month)
- Award-winning journalism from the best writers in racing
- Expert tips from the likes of Tom Segal and Paul Kealy
- Replays and results analysis from all UK and Irish racecourses
- Form study tools including the Pro Card and Horse Tracker
- Extensive archive of statistics covering horses, trainers, jockeys, owners, pedigree and sales data
Already a subscriber?Log in
Published on 16 April 2021inInterviews
Last updated 12:18, 16 April 2021
Copy- 'There was a moment of rage - but he's a magnificent horse and it suits me that he's passed under the radar'
- When Patrick Mullins met Jack Kennedy: 'You could say I've been lucky - they're just broken bones and they heal'
- Richard Hannon: 'When you're dead and buried the only things you're remembered by are your Classic winners'
- Paul Carberry: 'I jumped up on to the rafters. It tended to be all very strait-laced in those days, but I changed that'
- 'We’re like a Sunday League team running in an FA Cup final - we’re taking on the best with an £800 homebred'
- 'There was a moment of rage - but he's a magnificent horse and it suits me that he's passed under the radar'
- When Patrick Mullins met Jack Kennedy: 'You could say I've been lucky - they're just broken bones and they heal'
- Richard Hannon: 'When you're dead and buried the only things you're remembered by are your Classic winners'
- Paul Carberry: 'I jumped up on to the rafters. It tended to be all very strait-laced in those days, but I changed that'
- 'We’re like a Sunday League team running in an FA Cup final - we’re taking on the best with an £800 homebred'