The fascinating tussle for title honours between the reigning champion jockey Richard Johnson and his close challenger Brian Hughes, which promised to produce a nail-biting climax to the last three months of the jumps season, may have lost its cutting edge with Richard’s broken arm leaving him out injured for a minimum of six weeks.

But Hughes turned on the style at Carlisle on Monday. He rode a near 50-1 treble and proved beyond doubt that he would have pushed a fully fit Johnson all the way to the line and might well have captured the crown.

Hughes, quite rightly, remains cautious about his title prospects, knowing full well that one crashing fall could dash his hopes. The Carlisle three-timer stretched his lead to 13, the score being 124 to 111 in his favour.

His initial winner at the local venue came in the opener when he partnered the Donald McCain-trained Goobinator to an all-the-way success at odds of 8-15.

Owned by the trainer’s long-established patron Tim Leslie, this imposing sort is regarded as a long-term prospect, but stablemate Navajo Pass, also owned by Leslie and a Carlisle winner on the flat last summer, could well represent connections at Cheltenham in March.

Hughes was seen at his tactical best on the Irish raider Lil’s Gem in the mares novices hurdle holding her under restraint in the slipstream of the warm favourite Penny Mallow before unleashing her with a decisive burst of acceleration at the final flight.

He was then back in his dominating role on Aristo Du Plessis, the top weight in the 2m handicap hurdle which closed the card.

Trained by James Ewart, Aristo Du Plessis was once regarded as a potential star, but there have been issues over the two recent seasons and the gelding has gone ‘a long time between drinks ‘.

He has also slipped significantly down the weights and dropped both in trip as well as grade he led from pillar to post under a confident Hughes, who has a consistently good strike rate on the Ewart horses.

Evan Williams was the other star name at Carlisle. The Glamorgan trainer dispatched four horses on the 300-mile trip to Cumbria and won with two of them.

Ballybreen, forcefully ridden by Conor Ring, snatched a photo finish success in the novice handicap chase to record a third consecutive win and Adam Wedge secured a more comfortable victory aboard Skewif in the mares handicap chase.

Tristan Davidson continues to reward his admirers with his excellent strike rate at competitive prices. Last week, the Irthington trainer sent his previous winner Baracalu south to Leicester for the claiming hurdle.

It was his first runner at the Midlands course and, despite being opposed by an odds-on hotpot from the Nigel Twiston Davies yard, Baracalu could be called the winner from a long way out.

Harry Reed took Baracalu wide round the home turn towards the better ground and the Irthington runner quickened clear to score at 5/2. Not surprisingly Baracalu was claimed after the race.

Last Friday, Davidson was in the winner’s circle again. This time it was at Catterick to welcome home his sprightly veteran Casual Cavalier who took advantage of his rival’s erratic fencing to gain his first success for the stable.

Nicky Richards has had few runners over the last week, but Simply Ned is pencilled in for today’s Exchange Chase at Newbury and, hopefully, he will be making the journey south.

Simply Ned was far from discredited on his annual Grade 1 trip to Leopardstown over Christmas and he has now run two excellent races for Hughes at Cheltenham and the north’s leading jumps jockey is again pencilled in for the ride.

It is nearly two years since Native River and Might Bite fought out that gruelling battle up the Cheltenham hill in pursuit of Gold Cup glory.

The latest word from Simon Philip, who heads the syndicate which owns Might Bite, suggested that retirement was imminent so it is interesting to note his name among the five days for tomorrow’s Denman Chase at Newbury.

Perhaps he has been showing rekindled enthusiasm on the home gallops.

The Betfair Hurdle remains one of the biggest betting races of the winter season and this afternoon’s renewal is no exception.

Not So Sleepy has incurred the wrath of the handicapper but the Hughie Morrison hurdler is the class horse in the field and is the choice to prove his quality on the day.