Title looks in the bag now for Hanagan

This season’s race for the British Champion Flat Jockey’s title has been thoroughly absorbing and at the time of writing, (with only a few days to go until the end of the season), looks to be heading the way of Liverpool-born Paul Hanagan, an unconsidered outsider at the start of the term, but a jockey who has really come of age in 2010, writes Elliot Slater.

Hanagan’s epic dual for the title with the tremendously popular Richard Hughes has been very much in the balance for the last few days, but a double at Wolverhampton on Monday of the final week saw him go five winners clear, and with Hughes due to leave for America on Thursday evening to take the ride on Paco Boy in the Breeders’ Cup Mile on Saturday, it looks highly unlikely that Hanagan can be caught.

In becoming champion jockey, those looking at racing tips note that Hanagan will have bucked the trend in being the first northern based rider to triumph since the now-retired Kevin Darley achieved the feat in 2000. His association with Malton-based Richard Fahey has been tremendously successful, Fahey providing the lion’s share of Hanagan’s 186 winners, but there have been plenty of other northern and southern yards that have lent their support to the Scouser and kept the winners flowing throughout the term.

Hughes, stable jockey to his father-in-law Richard Hannon’s powerful yard, has ridden better than ever this term, belying his laid back attitude by giving it a real go over the last month. A seven-day suspension in October will surely be judged as the turning point for the Irishman who lost valuable ground on Hanagan at that critical stage.

The best thing of all about this year’s race for the title according to those assessing Irish racing tips has been the tremendous spirit in which the battle has been contested. If it was down simply to sportsmanship and gentlemanly behaviour, both riders would surely deserve to share the title.