Jockey Richard Hughes, who announced his retirement earlier this week, has said the pull of training was too much to resist despite feeling fit enough to “ride for another five years”.
The 42-year-old son of the late trainer Dessie Hughes, Richard Hughes has won the British Flat Jockey’s Championship for the past three years and will bow out at the end of the 2015 Flat season.
Speaking to RTÉ Sport, Hughes said of his decision: “Why now? I didn’t really want to the news to break so early with Cheltenham coming up.
"It’s bad timing, but I’m doing a trainers’ course in Newmarket, so rather than me having to deny it [retirement], I said I'd rather come clean and tell people.
“There was always going to be a progression and in the last year or two once I became champion jockey and fulfilled what I wanted to do. It was always, ‘When would I go into training?’
“So I’ve got to that point now.”
Hughes maintains he probably could have ridden on for another five years, but the time was ripe for a change in direction.
“I feel I could ride for another five years. It’s a young man’s game now, training,” he said.
"There’s a lot of good guys coming up. I don’t want to start too stale. I’m keen now to do it." - Richard Hughes on becoming a trainer
“There’s a lot of good guys coming up. I don’t want to start too stale. I’m keen now to do it.
“It’d be nice to go out on top.”
Settled in England with a wife and two children, Hughes said he has no intention of returning to Ireland to train and will establish a yard in the UK.
His sister Sandra, meanwhile, has taken over the reins of the Curragh yard of their late father Dessie, and scored some Grade One successes in her short spell in charge since his death in November.
Richard Hughes said: “My life is in England. Dad always knew that, that I would never go home and I’d train in England.
“Sandra’s doing really well and if I’ve as good a start as her, I’d be happy.”
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