Richard Hughes brings up another nifty 50

Richard Hughes rattled off his 50th winner of the season at Kempton yesterday, then claimed he hasn't got out of "third gear" yet in his quest to win the jockeys' championship.

The unusually tall Irish jockey was just defeated by Paul Hanagan in an epic battle for the riders' title last year and he sits in a handy position just behind the champion and the ever-dangerous Ryan Moore. Hughes was aboard Ed Dunlop's Piranha (13-8), a promising fifth on her recent Doncaster debut, and she snapped up the front-running 5-4 favourite Banksy to stretch three-and-a-half lengths clear.

"I think I usually hit 50 about Royal Ascot time, so that's about usual," said Hughes. "I guess I'm in third gear at the moment. She's a nice little filly and the only concern was dropping back to five furlongs."

Meanwhile, Michael Bell feels it is difficult to chose between his two runners in Saturday's John Smith's Northumberland Plate at Newcastle.

The Newmarket handler has targeted Activate and Tactician at the valuable contest, which he won in 2007 with Juniper Girl.

Tactician is owned by the Queen while Activate runs in the Highclere Thoroughbred Racing colours and the pair are separated by only 1lb in the weights.

"The ground is looking like it will be good which should suit them both as neither of them want extremes," said Bell. "It is probably more likely to be on the slower side if the forecasts are to be believed, and that could be a concern for Tactician, we'll have to see.

"The weather forecast looks slightly more in favour of Activate than Tactician at this stage. Both are lightly raced and potentially progressive. Activate was very impressive at Haydock and stayed very well. There's 1lb between them on official ratings and it's difficult to know which is best as you never work a horse over two miles."

A maximum field looks likely as 57 horses remained at the five-day stage.

Donald McCain's Overturn, last year's winner, is now at the head of the weights following the withdrawals of Tastahill and La De Two.

Overturn was supposed to run at Ascot on Saturday but was taken out due to the soft ground.

Red Cadeaux is still in the race despite running at Pontefract on Sunday while Irish-trained Address Unknown and Mount Athos are also towards the head of the weights.