Dessie Hughes
| Dessie Hughes | |
|---|---|
| Occupation | Trainer |
| Born | Ireland |
| Died | (aged 71) |
| Major racing wins | |
| Champion Chase, Champion Hurdle, Cheltenham Gold Cup | |
| Significant horses | |
| Davy Lad, Hardy Eustace, Monksfield | |
Dessie Hughes was an Irish racehorse trainer and jockey. He was the father of British champion jockey, Richard Hughes, and won at the Cheltenham Festival as both jockey and trainer.
Hughes' most famous successes in the saddle came at the Cheltenham Festival. In 1977, he partnered the Mick O’Toole-trained Davy Lad to success in the Cheltenham Gold Cup. Two years later, he was victorious in one of the most famous clashes in jumps racing history when Monksfield rode to a famous victory over Sea Pigeon in the Champion Hurdle.
Hughes had always planned to train and having prepared for three years, he took out his training licence in 1980. Light The Wad was an early success for the fledgling yard, winning the Irish Arkle at Leopardstown in 1982 and successive renewals of the Drogheda Chase at the Punchestown Festival in 1981 and 1982.
That same year, 1982, he sent out Miller Hill to win the Supreme Novices' Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival.
Other notable wins in the 1980s included Chow Mein in the 1985 Galway Plate, William Crump in the 1986 Huzzar Handicap Hurdle and Ballychorus Dream in the 1988 Drinmore Novice Chase.
For a long time around the turn of the decade, a persistent bug plagued the yard and success was hard to come by.
Major success returned with Guest Performance who won six hurdle races between February 1996 and January 1997, before winning the Grade 3 Nas Na Riogh Novice Chase at Naas in 1998. Hughes won the race again with Colonel Braxton in 2002, a horse which had also won the Grade 1 Menolly Homes Champion Novice Hurdle.
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