A year can be a long time in racing.
Twelve months ago, Hughes was winning a benchmark 70 over 1400m at Caulfield early in his time with trainer Gavin Bedggood. Fast forward to Saturday, and the gelding is now a Group 3 winner of the Victoria Handicap (1400m), setting a new track record in the process.
Under a perfectly judged ride from Jett Stanley, Hughes ($19) settled back before weaving through the field to score by 1½ lengths over Athanatos ($11), with Meridius ($9.50) a further length away in third.
Bedggood admitted he was surprised by the performance.
“He won a benchmark 70 on this day last year,” Bedggood said.
“But he’s a very easy horse to train. We learnt that fresh is best and we just try and space his runs.
“He was four weeks between runs today. He doesn’t do a lot of work. He had a gallop on Monday morning and then we’ve pretty much left him alone.
“It seems to work well for him, but I thought he might be getting to the end of it.
“He got very hot pre-race when I was saddling him up and I was worried about that, but it was a great ride and full credit to the horse.”
Bedggood said the instructions to Stanley were simple following Hughes’ previous win in the Echuca Cup (1400m).
“What I said was ride him ‘second half’,” he explained.
“He has to be ridden where he’s comfortable. We’ve tried riding him close in lesser grade and it hasn’t worked for him.
“John Allen got it right last time and Jett executed it to a tee today.
“He really likes that ducking and weaving sort of ride. He’s not a big horse, but he loves getting amongst other horses and it works very well for him.”
Hughes will now head to the beach for a short break while connections assess his next move.
Bedggood indicated a possible target could be the Golden Mile (1600m) at Bendigo next month.
“He’ll go and have his week at the beach,” Bedggood said.
“Maybe the Golden Mile could be a race as that works within the four-week time frame, but he’ll tell us.”
Punters can follow Hughes’ rise through the grades and compare markets for upcoming features via leading Australian betting sites.