FANCY buying a group winner for ‘reasonable’ money? What about asking Lambourn-based Richard Hughes to buy it for you – and, of course, train it too.

A former three-time champion jockey in Britain, Hughes started training in 2015, but sadly dad, the hugely popular Dessie, died in November 2014. How proud Dessie would be of his son’s successes, and especially after last week.

Richard Hughes, married to Lizzie Hannon, saddled nine winners in his first season in Britain, and in the 10 seasons since, including this one, has averaged 52 wins each year. While winners have never been lacking, star performers have been thin on the ground.

That is changing, and changing fast. In February 2033 Hughes had his first listed winner with the filly Kimngrace (Profitable), sourced with Ted Durcan as a breezer for £55,000. The same duo spent £32,000 for Calling The Wind (Authorized) and Hughes won four times with him, including the valuable Northumberland Plate. Fair Angellica (Harry Angel), who failed to sell for £2,000 as a yearling, has been conditioned to become a dual stakes winner, in France last summer and again this May in Britain.

Star Of Mehmas (Mehmas) was a 30,000gns yearling purchase by Hughes, won a listed race last year at two, and this year has three more placings in listed company to her credit. Last September, No Half Measures, a £34,000 Goffs UK purchase, won a Group 3 at Newbury, adding to a listed victory in France, and now this four-year-old daughter of Cable Bay (Invincible Spirit) is the latest winner of the Group 1 July Cup at Newmarket, amassing some £520,000 during her career to date.

Fleet arrives

Her win on Saturday came a day after the three-year-old Sayidah Dariyan, a daughter of Dariyan (Shamardal), took her winnings to just short of £140,000 with success in the Group 3 Summer Stakes at York, and she was another that Hughes sourced at Goffs UK, again at their Premier Yearling Sale. It recalls the old adage, “you wait ages for a bus – and then two come along at the same time!” Well, in the case of Richard Hughes, it seems like a fleet of them are arriving.

No Half Measures is the first European Group 1 winner for Cable Bay, himself a Group 2-winning sprinter who ran second in the Group 1 Dewhurst Stakes. He was among the best two-year-olds of 2013, and proved very popular with breeders and in the sales ring in the early years.

Trained by Charlie Hills, Cable Bay was second in the Group 2 Richmond Stakes at Goodwood, beaten a neck, third in the Group 2 Champagne Stakes at Doncaster, and second in the Group 3 Somerville Tattersall Stakes at Newmarket, before ending his juvenile season with a second to War Command in the Dewhurst. That year he was rated the best of three sons of Invincible Spirit (Green Desert) on 114, with Charm Spirit on 113 and Kingman on 111.

Remaining in training for another two seasons, Cable Bay won two group races over seven furlongs, the Group 2 Challenge Stakes at Newmarket (in which he was also placed second) and the Group 3 John of Gaunt Stakes at Haydock Park. He was also placed in Ascot’s Group 2 Summer Mile and the Group 3 Gladness Stakes at the Curragh, besides other group races at Ascot, Goodwood and Newbury. At the latter venue he was very close behind Night Of Thunder in a field of 16 for the Group 1 Lockinge Stakes.

Cable Bay

In spite of siring Group 2 Temple Stakes winners King’s Lynn and Liberty Beach in his first crop, Cable Bay did not achieve what breeders and trainers had expected of him, and he was sold by Highclere Stud to India in 2022. The following year he sired a Group 1 winner in Australia when Uncommon James won the Oakleigh Plate. Cable Bay’s seventh Highclere crop are now two-year-olds, and he has a total of 13 stakes winners, three of those from his time shuttling to Australia.

Bred by Sally Nicholls and Bumble Mitchell’s Bumble Bloodstock, No Half Measures is the better of a pair of winners from Fascinator (Helmet). Her other winner is Trilby (Twilight Son), a £40,000 yearling who placed once in five starts for George Boughey. He then sold to Dan Astbury for 2,000gns, moved to be trained by Sam England, and has now won five races and earned over £60,000 for the Tip Your Hat Partnership!

Fascinator was second on her debut, and sole start, at two, but did not build on that in two further runs. Her dam Mary Read (Bahamian Bounty) was a smart juvenile and ran second in the Group 3 Molecomb Stakes, and through one of her four winning daughters, is the grandam of a Molecomb Stakes winner, Kachy (Kyllachy). He was second to Quiet Reflection in the Group 1 Commonwealth Cup, and three years later third to Blue Point and Dream Of Dreams in the Group 1 Diamond Jubilee Stakes, both at Royal Ascot.

Sayidah Dariyan kicks off the weekend celebration

TWENTY-FOUR hours before Richard Hughes hit the headlines with No Half Measures, the trainer produced the best to date from a rising star of the sprinting ranks. On only her seventh start, the Yeomanstown Stud-bred Sayidah Dariyan became just the fourth stakes winner, and second group winner, for the Group 1 Prix Ganay winner Dariyan (Shamardal).

Retired to Haras de Bonneval in 2017 at a fee of €8,000, Dariyan’s failure to deliver in his early crops saw his fee fall for a couple of seasons, and then move last year to Haras du Mont Goubert, though still in the ownership of the Aga Khan Studs.

He was humanely euthanised towards the end of his only season at Mont Goubert after an illness. Yeomanstown Stud bought Sayidah Dariyan’s dam, the Siyouni (Pivotal) mare Tencaratrubieslace, carrying the Group 3 winner for 45,000gns.

Since then, Tencaratrubieslace has had two daughters by Supremacy (Mehmas), a two-year-old and a yearling. The older is named Supreme Diamond, was sold to Clive Cox last year for €45,000, and she placed on her most recent start. Tencaratrubieslace is half-sister to the French listed winner Bakoel Koffie (Naaqoos), and a full-sister to Finsbury Square (Siyouni).

Both Bakoel Koffie and Finsbury Square were multiple winners, scoring on 10 and seven occasions respectively, but there was a gulf when it came to quality. Three of Finsbury Square’s seven wins were at pattern level, the best coming in the Group 2 Prix du Gros-Chene at Chantilly, a race in which he was also to finish second. He twice won Group 3 races at Deauville.