FOR Ryan Moore and Frankie Dettori, it will be business as usual.
For them the Qatar Stewards’ Cup is one more glittering prize to go with all the others they have been chasing on the helter-skelter downlands of Goodwood this week.
The same can be said for Paul Hannagan, who worked his way up from the northern circuit to twice become champion jockey, but for Barry McHugh it is his big chance when he rides the favourite, Orion's Bow.
McHugh, a 33-year-old from Co Tyrone, has taken the long route to this point as one of the game’s grafters, and so has Orion's Bow, who did not make the grade when trained by John Gosden and was sold by owner-breeders Cheveley Park Stud for 13,000gns to be trained by David Nicholls.
He did not look an instant bargain and the horse had dropped to a handicap mark of just 69 when winning at Newcastle in May but has won another four, most recently in the Scottish Stewards’ Cup at Hamilton a fortnight ago.
That was McHugh’s third win on Orion’s Bow and he admitted to wondering if this was the same horse he had ridden 12 months before.
“I sat on him a few times last year and he’d never get home,” McHugh said. “But horses can make you fools – I got off him then and thought he might be a bit ungenuine, but David saw something in him. He was big horse but a bit unfurnished. When I got back on him this time, he was a different horse. He’s strengthened and could really carry you in the race.”
Orion’s Bow will have to carry 9st 4lb in the Stewards’ Cup, having risen 37lbs in the handicap since May, but McHugh sounded quietly confident when he said: “the better the race, the better he’s run and I think he could be a Group horse.”
At £250,000, the Stewards’ Cup is worth more than many Group races and McHugh wants to seize his chance. “I make a good living, but a good payday like that will make a difference when you’ve got a mortgage to pay. It wouldn’t make a hell of a lot of difference to Ryan Moore but it does to us lads.”
But any such thoughts will be banished before the starting stalls crash open.
From there it will just be business as usual.
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