Chris Hughes: from Love Island to a breakout role with ITV Racing

Few people manage to change opinions on Twitter, the modern soapbox for anyone with a gripe, a grudge or worse, but Chris Hughes reckons he has managed to pull off the seemingly impossible. By dint of his personality and professionalism, the former Love Island contestant has turned around criticism of his early appearances on ITV Racing and can look back on a successful year as a regular on the sport’s most high-profile presenting team.

Love Island alumni can head in various directions upon returning to reality but swapping the plush Spanish villa for British racecourses in all weathers is surely one of the most unusual. For Hughes, though, the ITV job was an ideal opportunity to develop his broadcasting career and follow his long-held passion for racing.

They have been good for each other: Hughes has been able to prove himself outside the usual celebrity circuit and ITV has taken the opportunity to tap into a different, younger demographic.

Reflecting on where the journey began, Hughes, 26, says: “My first interaction with ITV was when I rode in the Macmillan charity race at York in June 2018 for Coral. I appeared on The Opening Show on the morning of the race and from there I just kept in touch via one person or another.

“I was on The Opening Show again at Cheltenham on the Thursday of festival week and joined the Social Stable in the afternoon for the first time, and it kind of worked really well. Me and Chappers [Matt Chapman] just bounced off each other from the get-go and I really enjoyed the day. I remember Chappers saying to me afterwards: ‘That was brilliant, I wouldn’t be surprised if we used you again.’”

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Chapman proved to be spot on in his assessment. Hughes showed enough natural flair, combined with racing knowledge and passion, to prompt ITV bosses to deploy his services on a more frequent basis. Reaction to the newcomer was not so favourable on Twitter, however.

“Twitter is a very opinionated platform and the amount of abuse I used to get over the first three, four or five times I was broadcasting was ridiculous, whether that was from punters or whoever,” Hughes says. “They just thought I was a kid from Love Island going in blindly to present horseracing.”

Many of the critics would not have realised Hughes, who grew up in the Cotswolds, had a long-time link with the sport.

“I’ve been involved in racing since I was 11 in terms of riding racehorses, whether it was point-to-pointers or Earth Summit, who was kept with Marcella Bayliss just down the road from Nigel Twiston-Davies in his retirement.

"It was at Marcella’s point-to-point yard that I developed myself riding out. My dad has owned horses with Jonjo O’Neill and for me it was just something I was passionate about. I know about racing and it was about breaking that mould.”

Hughes shrugged off the negative comments, kept working hard and has proved himself in front of camera. “I now hold up the Social Stable on my own, present live on my own, and that’s a skill set. It’s something I’m happy to do and something I want to continue to develop.

"I don’t receive those Twitter remarks anymore and it’s all very positive now. I feel like people have started to understand my involvement in horseracing throughout my life and that has helped switch opinion. It took a while for perceptions to change in that respect.”

The dark side of social media has touched Hughes in other ways too.
His partner is Jesy Nelson, a member of chart-topping girl group Little Mix whose battles with online trolling and abuse featured in the hard-hitting BBC documentary Odd One Out in September.

Jesy Nelson: hard-hitting BBC documentary

Hughes has also teamed up with the BBC to film a documentary that aims to shed light on the delicate issue of male fertility. “It’s in relation to my brother’s testicular cancer, but 90 per cent of the focus is on male fertility. It’s a stigmatised subject and hopefully we can help create awareness so that people can seek guidance and help if it affects them. It’s a really exciting project that should be out in December or January.”

With more than 500,000 followers of his own on Twitter and 2.1 million on Instagram, Hughes has helped racing reach a wider audience. “I’ve had tweets from all sorts of people,” he says. “One guy tweeted me saying ‘My daughter would never sit and watch horseracing with me, but now she’s seen Chris from Love Island she’s sat watching the whole coverage’.

“That makes it all worthwhile, seeing a younger audience take an interest in racing, because it’s an unbelievable sport, we know that. It’s great that it opens up that demographic of viewers with people tuning in to watch ITV Racing and if I can have an influence, that’s brilliant.

Chris Hughes with Matt Chapman on ITV's Social Stable at Aintree on Grand National dayCredit: Itv

"I think with sports like racing so many people are stuck in their ways and they don’t want to see change. You want to increase participation and we want everyone to love the sport. A lot of racecourses are using the incentive of letting kids go for free now because it gets families involved, which is a superb initiative.”

Hughes comes from a predominantly jumping background, having grown up with the likes of Sam Twiston-Davies and Jonathan England, but is a keen follower of Flat racing as well. He cites York’s Ebor festival in August as a particular high point from his work with ITV.

“I really enjoyed the Ebor meeting,” he says. “I’ve ridden around York [in the Macmillan charity race] and it’s got a place in my heart. For me, York is the most beautiful racecourse in the country and it’s such a friendly and hospitable environment. It’s just fun. I also loved Oaks day at Epsom and I tipped up Anapurna live on air, which always helps.”

He feels he has found a television home with ITV Racing. “It’s a proper close-knit family from everyone you see in front of the camera to those behind the scenes. We all go out together as a team during big meetings for food and for a few drinks. It’s very chilled out and that’s why it works so well.

"The best thing is that every time we go on air, we try to improve. Whether that be with more cameras, looking at alternative areas of interest, they’re always doing more and that’s why viewing figures have increased.

“I’ve really found my niche and it gives me stability amid a ridiculously hectic lifestyle, because every day I’m somewhere else. It’s nice to have ITV Racing there for me. It’s something I know I can focus on and something I can put my keen interest into.”

Chris Hughes: 'It's a proper close-knit family from everyone you see in front of the camera to those behind the scenes'Credit: Edward Whitaker

Hughes is also an ambassador for Coral and is the face of the Coral Champions Club, the syndicate responsible for the Jonjo O’Neill-trained Annie Mc, who won twice as a novice hurdler last season but was denied a crack at the Grade 1 Mares Novice Hurdle Championship Final at Fairyhouse in April due to a vaccination error.

Honeysuckle was an impressive winner on the day but Hughes felt Annie Mc would have gone close. “That race was run to suit with a strong pace and a good gallop and I think she’d have been first or second. In fairness, though, I’m just one of those people who is supremely optimistic. If my team, Sunderland, were playing Man City, I’d think we’d win.”

Looking ahead to Annie Mc’s bright future, he adds: “She’s made for chasing and I think next year is her oyster. She’s grown tremendously over the summer and she’s a real size. She looked magnificent anyway but she looks unbelievable now.”

On his own career path, Hughes says: “I have to be busy to get enjoyment out of life and I just want to better myself and be more successful than I am now. I probably thought people needed me at one stage when I first came out of Love Island, but that was never the case. You’re in demand but you’ve got to get your head down, work, find your niche and do what makes you happy.”

That’s not a bad recipe for life and it certainly seems to be serving Hughes well.

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