Richard Hannon jnr, the trainer’s son and assistant, said: “She has a real habit of getting herself in trouble, but she won very well and won fair and square today.
“The race suited her as they went very quick. She’s a really good filly and a pleasure to deal with.”
Hughes had failed to get a winner over the first three days of the meeting and relaxed for Friday by playing golf with fellow jockey Pat Dobbs – and beating his rival on the course before guiding Sky Lantern to victory.
“The job is to ride winners the way I always ride them, to get them into a rhythm and find the gaps, and if they come they come and if they don’t they don’t. They haven’t been coming all week and it’s been a nightmare,” he said.
“Richard [Hannon Jr] believed in me, and when I said, ‘I want to drop this filly out and try to overcome the draw’ and he said, ‘Ride the way you always ride’. You have to keep belief in yourself, and if you don’t there are plenty of fellas out there to knock you down.
“I went out this morning and played golf with Pat Dobbs in a bid to clear my head. I needed that because things were just getting to me. I needed to get away for a couple of hours to freshen the mind up.”
The 5-4 favourite Leading Light, trained by Aidan O’Brien and ridden by his son Joseph, won the Queen’s Vase, which is named in memory of Sir Henry Cecil, after holding off the challenge of Feel Like Dancing and Ryan Moore.
The Lady Cecil-trained Disclaimer, which would have been an emotional winner for the late trainer’s widow, briefly challenged but faded late on and was well beaten.
