'I knew I was drinking too much - I was on a hamster wheel and couldn't get off'

If I Knew Then... is a week-long series in which we talk to famous racing figures about regrets, lessons learned and mistakes made in life. In part two, senior features writer Peter Thomas talks to the three-time champion jockey about life as a jockey, trainer and alcoholic

Sometimes life's really not fair. It's barely ten in the morning and Richard Hughes has just polished off his second slice of Victoria sponge, to chase down the bacon roll he had half an hour ago, and he still looks as though he could slide under the kitchen door, ride four lots and then swing his leg over a couple at Brighton this afternoon.

He claims he's put on two stone since his days as a jockey, but it's hard to see how a man of 5ft 9in could ever be two stone lighter than he is now without losing a limb. He's 10st 6lb, he says, which sounds pretty light, but almost normal. I think back to the days when I was 10st 6lb and then step away from the sponge.