PAUL Hanagan’s battle with Champion Jockey title rival Richard Hughes is in the home straight.

The pair are all-out to claim the coveted prize in the final week, which culminates in the last meeting of the season at Doncaster on Saturday.

Having led Hughes by 13 winners earlier in the season, the 29-year-old has watched as the former Champion has eaten away at his lead despite serving a six-day ban in October.

Hanagan’s success seemed so certain at that point that bookmakers Ladbrokes even paid out on bets for him to be named Champion, almost a month before the season’s end.

But the Warrington jockey has seen his firm lead slip away in the final weeks and now the race is back on for him to become the first northerner for 87 years to become Champion Jockey.

Starting the week four winners clear of the chasing pack, Hanagan scored a double at Wolverhampton on Monday to counter Hughes’s single success and move five clear by the start of racing on Tuesday.

But a quick double from Hughes in the opening races at Kempton reduced Hanagan’s lead to three before Wednesday’s leg of the competition.

Both are piling as many races as possible into the remaining days, with Hanagan double booked at Lingfield and Kempton today, Thursday, and Southwell and Wolverhampton tomorrow, Friday.

The pair will commence a final showdown at Doncaster on Saturday, with race-goers set to see the battle for the one of the most exciting title races in recent memory go right down to the wire.

Hanagan will finish off an epic season of more than 1,100 rides in Doncaster’s Wentworth Stakes at 3.40pm, riding the Richard Fahey-trained Kaldoun Kingdom, in what will hopefully be his victory lap before the well earned end-of-season break.