A five-time Irish Champion jockey Murtagh juggled his roles and trainer for close to a year before hanging up his boost in June last year.
Hughes, who is currently vying with Ryan Moore and Silvestre de Sousa for the lead in the British champiopnship, said in his column in the Racing Post that he hopes to saddle his first runner before the end of the season, provided he is granted approval from the British Horseracing Authority (BHA).
Should he be granted a trainer’s licence he would then combine riding and training until he retired.
“I am a lucky man in many ways, one of them being I will benefit from the ‘champion jockey’ tag when I start training. However, I am not silly enough to believe that benefit will last for more than 18 months. I therefore need to make an impact in that initial year and a half,” he said in his weekly column.
“I still want to ride for the remainder of the season and still want to be champion jockey for the fourth time. That has not changed.
“However, whereas at the start of this year retaining the title meant everything to me, that is no longer the case. I cannot allow my training career to be jeopardised by my championship ambitions. If I can be champion again that would be great, but if the riding looks like hurting the training I will have to knock the title on the head.”
Hughes has notched 35 wins (prior to Saturday) with Ryan Moore on 46 and Silvestre de Sousa on 36.
