It didn’t take Michael Hughes long to reacquaint himself with the winners’ circle.
A highly-successful horseman, Hughes enjoyed glory at the highest level while amassing almost 400 wins before deciding to take a break from the industry in 2022.
Hughes’ final victory before his ‘spell’ was with Used To Be A Maid in Ballarat on May 26, 2022.
With the harness bug still in his system, Hughes returned to the fore last month when Thats My Cardigan competed in Maryborough.
Luckless during his debut, Thats My Cardigan was on his best behaviour to score at the same venue yesterday.
“I had no plans of training again,” Hughes said. “I thought I had my time for a number of reasons, so I walked away from it.
“I never watched a race for almost two years, then I started pre-training a few.
“After that I got asked a couple of times to train some, but said ‘no’, until I eventually decided to take them on.
“Now I’m working six, which keeps me busy.”
Driven by Michael Bellman, Thats My Cardigan worked to the lead from his second row draw before cruising to a soft 19-metre win from Calders Revenge.
Lady Manche was four-and-a-half metres away third in 2:02.1 over 2190 metres.
“I wasn’t expecting to get a win so early, but I’m not going to complain,” Hughes said. “I have to admit I was nervous at his first start as it had been a while, but that has settled.
“He is a fragile type and it doesn’t take much to throw him off his game, but he goes alright.
“The times he runs on the training track suggests he has a bright future, but we’ll wait and see.
“He’s eligible for the Sires’ heats coming up, but he is so big and raw that I’m not really sure he is ready.
“I’ll have to sit down with his owners and work out a plan.”
