Five-time Welsh women’s champion Jodie Hughes has hung up her saddle.
Determined to go out on a personal high, Pembrokeshire-based Hughes donned the colours of her father Graham to ride Morehurrylesshaste, who pulled up in a handicap hurdle at Southwell on Friday, and then announced her decision. She said: “Win, lose or draw I knew that was going to be my final ride. It’s my decision, no one has told me to pack up and I’m not ending through injuries. I’ve been very lucky to have enjoyed so many happy times.”
Hughes, who rode 90 winners comprising 78 in point-to-points and 12 under Rules, said the recent death of her friend Lorna Brooke, who suffered fatal injuries in a fall at Taunton, had been a factor in her decision. She said: “I always aimed to ride 100 winners and was planning to race next season – I’d even bought a smart new pair of boots. Lorna’s death has affected me badly, and while I know nothing will bring her back it’s because there was a group of us who were similar ages and rode together and against each other.
“I was 26 when Isabel Tompsett had a terrible fall ten years ago, and while that shocked us all I was young enough to want to keep riding. It’s different now.”
Of her highlights in the saddle, she said: “There were so many, but getting round in the 2017 Aintree Foxhunters’ Chase on Tony Star for Mickey Bowen was one. We finished 11th of 29 and it was such a buzz it felt like winning.
“Three years before that I won on Panache, who was 100/1, at Worcester, beating Tony McCoy [who finished third]. I came round the final bend tracking him and could hear the commentator saying, ‘Jodie Hughes is following the champion’. On another occasion I was given a fabulous necklace after winning a valuable ladies’ race on Wells De Lune for Peter Bowen at Cartmel.”
Hughes’s riding opportunities have been curbed by the Covid pandemic which has prevented point-to-pointing taking place in Wales since December 2019. She said: “One of my favourite horses is Patricktom Boru, who I won eight races on and picked up lots of places. He was my little partner in crime around the Welsh circuit. When I last won on him he was 12 and now he’s 14. Time has rushed past.”
Hughes, who works at her father’s caravan park near Saundersfoot in Pembrokeshire, will not be lost to point-to-pointing and racing. She said: “When I was at school I was desperate to do work experience with Peter Bowen, so I went there at 15 and I’ve been riding out there ever since. I still go in on work mornings.
“My fiancé, Scott, has a pointer called Ozzie Thomas who he trains and will be riding next season in points and hunters’ chases. My role will be groom and leader-upper.
“To think I won five Welsh championships still takes some believing. I’ve had the best time.”