How many winners did Brian Hughes ride in 2019/20?

In Britain, the 2019/20 National Hunt season was originally due to end on April 25, but concluded prematurely, on March 18, when the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) announced that all horse racing would be suspended until the end of April, at the earliest, due to the coronavirus pandemic. Nevertheless, Brian Hughes, who is based in Cleveland in North East England, rode 141 winners, 19 more than his nearest rival, Richard Johnson, to win the Jump Jockeys’ Championship for the first time. Indeed, Hughes became the first jockey other than Johnson or Sir Anthony McCoy to win the title since 1995/96 and the first northern-based jockey to do so since Jonjo O’Neill in 1979/80.

Originally from County Armagh, Northern Ireland, Hughes, 34, was Champion Conditional Jockey in 2007/08, but achieved his best seasonal tally as a fully-fledged professional in 2018/19, when he rode 146 winners. However, even in the abbreviated 2019/20 season, Hughes only fell five short of that total and, while Richard Johnson was sidelined for nearly six weeks in January and February with a broken arm, few could deny that the newly-crowned champion fully deserved his success. In fact, Hughes was already three winners ahead when Johnson sustained the injury – he was unseated from his mount, Westend Story, in a novices’ chase at Exeter on January 21 and subsequently kicked by a rival – and, with a career-best strike rate of 20%, his title win was hardly a fluke.

Is Melon a Cheltenham Gold Cup contender?

Now a nine-year-old, Melon has the dubious distinction of finishing second on all four visits to the Cheltenham Festival, including when beaten a neck by Buveur D’Air in the Champion Hurdle in 2018 and a nose by Samcro in the Marsh Novices’ Chase. The Medicean gelding can be considered a 2021 Cheltenham Gold Cup contender insofar as he holds an entry in the ‘Blue Riband’ event, but the fact remains that he has yet to win beyond 2 miles 1 furlong, over hurdles or fences, so his stamina is questionable. That said, his close third in the Savills Chase at Leopardstown on his first attempt at 3 miles over fences provides some hope for the 3 miles 2½ furlongs of the Gold Cup, although he is available at a dismissive 33/1 ante post. By contrast, he is a top-priced 12/1 for the Ryanair Chase, over 2 miles 5 furlongs, which may be his preferred option at the Cheltenham Festival.

However, according to Patrick Mullins, who rode Melon at Cheltenham and Leopardstown, he makes ‘an awful lot of ground in the air’, a fact that may enter calculations with regard to the 2021 Grand National in due course. At the time of writing, the bookmakers are equally dismissive of his chances at National, again offering 33/1 ante post, but it can be be argued that he wouldn’t be the first classy two-and-a-half mile steeplechaser to win the Aintree marathon. Of course, he still has his stamina to prove over 3 miles 2½ furlongs, never mind 4 miles 2½ furlongs, but it will be interesting to see how his season progresses.

What is Form, and How is it Used?

As with any niche interest or pursuit, there is a long list of terms and phrases used within the world of horse racing that, to any outsider, don’t tend to make even a lick of sense.

From ante-post to yankee, the (seemingly) bizarre vocabulary of the punter can take a fair bit of getting used to, but one of the most obscure areas newcomers often struggle to get to grips with is, of course, the pesky business of form – namely, understanding how it can help and, more importantly, understanding how to use it to help you to make the right (and most lucrative) choices.

A quick glance at a horse’s form won’t tell you much – unless, of course, you’re a seasoned expert fresh out of the most prestigious races in England. In that case, it will tell you just about everything you need to know to make your choices and cast your bets for the day’s races.

So, if you’re wondering how on earth you can begin to develop that third eye that seems to make seasoned punters so quick to judge a horse’s form, read more about form and understanding it below.

What Does ‘Form’ Mean?

Whether you visit a real world bookkeepers in person, or the casino online, making your choices means that you need to be able to process as much information as possible, as quickly as possible. Unless you are making an ante-post bet, the chances are that you don’t have a huge amount of time at your disposal to read through paragraphs of information about each entrant.

This is where form comes it. It effectively allows the bookies to condense a great welter of information into a small, easily digested sequence of data – and being concise is the best way to ensure that we remember the information we need to remember.

How do You Understand Form?

If you look at a form card, you will see a series of numbers. From left to right, these numbers each represent a race, with the number on the far right representing the most recent, and vice versa.

If the number reads as, say, a three for any given race then you can understand that, in that race, the horse finished third. These numbers will run from one to nine – a zero means that the horse finished outside of the top nine.

You will also see a number of abbreviations, which are explained here. The most important of these abbreviations tends to be F, for ‘fell’, R for ‘refused’, and U for ‘unseated’.

In this way, you can use the form to refresh your memory on a horse’s most recent performances, or to gain a rapid overview of a horse you have not been following thus far.

Form is deceptive, only in that it looks a great deal more confusing than it really is. In actual fact, as soon as you understand what its purpose is within the world of racing, and why the numbers are so central to betters and bookkeepers, you will find it to be an incredibly valuable tool at your next race. Practice reading the form, and it won’t take long before it becomes second nature.

 

How many times has Kemboy run in the Cheltenham Gold Cup?

At the time of writing, Kemboy is, once again, among the entries for the 2021 Cheltenham Gold Cup, for which he is a top-priced 25/1 ante post. Now a nine-year-old, the Voix Du Nord gelding has been a regular visitor to the Cheltenham Festival in recent seasons, finishing fifth in the Neptune Investment Management Novices’ Hurdle in 2017 and fourth in the JLT Novices’ Chase in 2018, before contesting the Cheltenham Gold Cup in 2019 and 2020.

Indeed, on his first attempt in the ‘Blue Riband’ event, Kemboy was sent off at shorter odds than his stable companion, and eventual winner, Al Boum Photo, but his effort was disastrously short-lived. On the run to the first fence, he was tightened for room, took a false step on landing and unseated jockey David Mullins. He gained some compensation for that early exit when winning the Betway Bowl Chase at Aintree and the Punchestown Gold Cup on his next two starts, but suffered two further defeats, at the hands of Delta Work, in the Savills Gold Cup and the Irish Gold Cup, both at Leopardstown, on his return to action in 2019/20.

On his second attempt in the Cheltenham Gold Cup, Kemboy was sent off at 8/1, as he had been the previous year, but his jumping lacking fluency on occasions and he was relegated to last of the twelve runners as the field approached the fourth-last fence. Ridden at that point, he made some headway in the closing stages, staying on to finish seventh, beaten 12 lengths, without ever looking likely to trouble the principals.

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