Richard Hughes rules Windsor with five winners

Richard Hughes enjoyed another spectacular afternoon at Windsor as the champion jockey rode five winners from his six mounts at the Thameside track yesterday, three of them for trainer Richard Hannon.

Champion jockey Richard Hughes enjoyed a triumphant day at Windsor with five winners. Picture: Alan Crowhurst/Getty

Hughes has few peers at Windsor and, on October 15 last year, recorded seven winners for the first time.

Lilbourne Lass set the tone for Hughes’s day by winning the MacDonald Hotel Windsor Novice Auction Stakes with any amount in hand, as might have been expected of a 1-16 chance in a three-runner affair.

Autumn Sunrise, another prohibitive odds-on shot at 2-5, was an all-the-way winner of the Join Young Hooves Kids Club Today Maiden Auction Stakes. It was a change of trainer but the same result for Hughes when the Clive Cox-trained 11-4 favourite Jubilant Queen landed the Coral Fillies’ Handicap. And it was a fabulous four when Hannon’s The Alamo (2-1 fav) took the Ossie & Hutch Memorial Maiden Stakes, with Hughes having to work a a bit harder.

Hughes’s chance of going through the card had earlier been foiled when Brownsea Brink was declared a non-runner in the fifth race. But normal service was resumed in the Ice Cream Festival Monday August 19th Handicap on Clive Brittain’s Sinaadi (6-5 fav), who looked to have plenty to do before Hughes’s perseverance paid off as his mount got on top a furlong out and ran out a three and a half length winner.

Hughes gave everything on the Jane Chapple-Hyam-trained Mont Blanc in an effort to make it six in the New MG3 From SMC Handicap but, while the 5-2 favourite battled on, Certavi proved a length too strong.

Meanwhile, talented dual-purpose runner Kashmir Peak lost little in defeat on his return from a break at Chester at the start of the month and he rates as the one to beat in the Caledonia Best Handicap at Ayr this afternoon.

A winner on the level in Ireland when trained by Ger Lyons, Kashmir Peak was snapped up late last year by Settrington handler John Quinn to pursue a juvenile hurdling campaign.

The four-year-old made a flying start with a comfortable debut triumph at Market Rasen supplemented by success in the Grade Two Summit Juvenile Hurdle at Doncaster. He looked likely to complete the hat-trick until parting company with Dougie Costello in Musselburgh’s Scottish Triumph Hurdle.

Quinn decided to switch his charge back to the Flat on the Roodee last week and it almost came off but the gelding was eventually beaten half a length by the in-form Zenafire. He competes off the same mark of 78 in Ayr today and a drop to 10 furlongs from a mile and a half may see him in an even better light. Newmarket handler Sir Mark Prescott has a decent strike-rate at Ayr and his Szabo’s Art is bound to be popular in the Coca-Cola Handicap.

The three-year-old was well supported on her handicap debut at Newcastle over a mile and a quarter and duly landed some hefty bets. As that was an apprentice race, she turns out five days later unpenalised.

Ayr

2.30 Power Up

3.00 Spread Boy

3.30 Another For Joe

4.00 Little Jimmy Odsox

4.30 Szabo’s Art

5.00 Kashmir Peak (nap)

5.30 Rock Canyon

Wolverhampton

2.15 Trinity River

2.45 Baytown Kestrel

3.15 Simple Magic

3.45 Clear Pearl

4.15 Powerful Pierre

4.45 Mount Tiger

5.20 Gravitate

Thirsk

5.25 Strikemaster

6.00 Ribbleton

6.30 Dutch Breeze

7.00 Dusty Storm

7.30 Auto Mac

8.00 Kolonel Kirkup

8.30 Jebulani

Windsor

5.40 Zawiyah

6.10 Sky Garden

6.40 Rioja Day

7.10 Rising Dawn

7.40 Regal Silk

8.10 Fossa

Double

Kashmir Peak

5:00 Ayr

Spread Boy

3:00 Ayr