It's down to the pluck of the Irish

They called Lester Piggott "The Long Fellow" because he was unusually tall for a jockey. The nickname might equally apply to Richard Hughes, a lanky Irishman who last week won the British flat racing jockey championship for the second year in succession.

Hughes is in South Africa to display his world-class talents at racecourses around the country - as captain of the team of overseas jockeys taking on local top riders in this weekend's three-leg International Jockeys Challenge.

Hughes's sterling work in defending his crown in the world's most competitive racing arena was rather overlooked by the UK media, so fixated were they on another big story last week: steeplechase jockey AP McCoy riding the 4000th winner of his career.

To be fair to those pommy hacks, McCoy's feat is mind-boggling. We're privileged to be watching the greatest ever in his field and one of the greatest of all sportsmen.

I've written about AP before, and will again, even before he cracks the 5000 mark - for which, incidentally, you can get tempting odds of 10/1.

At 40, Richard Hughes is a year older than McCoy, but has only the two champ trophies, as opposed to the 18 that his fellow Mick battles to keep balanced on his mantelpiece.

But the long fellow's achievements are heroic, nonetheless.

Unlike Piggott and McCoy, who found success early in their careers and developed the winning habit, Hughes came late to the summit. His was a losing habit, fuelled by alcoholism.

Ditching the bottle, finding inner peace and dredging up the will to become a champion - all while wasting in a sweatbox and eating crumbs every day - must have taken immense courage.

McCoy's newly released novel is called Taking The Fall and is well informed by his experience of 1000 race tumbles and countless broken bones.

In interesting contrast, Hughes's autobiography is rather brilliantly titled A Weight Off My Mind.

Hughes captained the winning teams in the last two International Jockeys Challenges.

Those squads had a powerful Irish presence and the lilting accent will again pervade our jockey rooms.

Hughes's countrymen, Jamie Spencer, Tom Queally and Johnny Murtagh, are very famous names of the modern turf and they add much lustre and excitement to the series.

The other two team members are Australian Tom Bowman, who has 1500 winners to his credit, including an impressive 30 Group 1s, and Belgium's Gregory Benoist, with 800 winners and a ranking among the very best riders on the French circuit.

The South African team is captained by local champion Piere "Striker" Strydom.

Riding shotgun at his side are Anton Marcus, Durban July hero S'manga "Bling" Khumalo, Sean Cormack, Robbie Fradd and Anthony Delpech.

The challenge is decided over a total of 12 races, with a sliding scale of points for finishing places.

The first leg of four races plays out at tonight's Turffontein, Joburg, meeting; the second at Kenilworth in Cape Town tomorrow, and the third at Clairwood in Durban on Sunday.

The horses are seeded and mounts distributed to try to give the jockeys a balance of chances.

It's compelling stuff.