'He lives, sleeps and breathes racing - I wouldn't fancy being married to him!'

In an extract from the Racing Post Annual, David Carr traces the phenomenal rise of champion jockey Brian Hughes

Nothing summed up a year of tumultuous upheaval better than one of the most heroic championships in sport being awarded by phone rather than in the heat of battle. It was a year when all the old certainties became uncertain – nothing we used to rely on was reliable any more.

Of course, some things change all the time. Between 1996 and 2019, Britain had four poet laureates, five Doctor Whos and no fewer than six prime ministers. But through that whole period there were just two champion jump jockeys.