Dessie Hughes was remembered at Wexford races today.

The green racing silks of leading horse jockey-turned-trainer Dessie Hughes, a family photograph and a shoe from his hero horses Hardy Eustace and Our Conor were brought to the altar to encapsulate his loves.

“Dessie Hughes was definitely a man and a gentleman,” recalled family friend Fr John Byrne in the Carmelite Church in Kildare town, near the trainer’s Osborne Lodge, Curragh training base.

Chief among the many mourners of the 71-year-old who filled the pews were his wife and biggest supporter Eileen, daughter Sandra and son Richard, the three-time champion flat jockey.

At Wexford racecourse this afternoon, a minute’s silence was observed for Dessie Hughes, who had local links as his mother was a native of Boolavogue.

Announcer Dan Walsh described him as “one of the great people in Irish racing”, he had a passion for running his horses down Slaneyside and he had a high ratio of winners at Bettyville Park.

His last runner there was a winner in October when his daughter, Sandra, looked after the horse and the win give the ailing Kildare-man something to be cheerful about.