With a wealth of top-notch horsemen emanating from the Maritimes and, more specifically, Prince Edward Island, none of them had ever swept the training and driving titles at both Red Shores Charlottetown and Summerside in the same season. Jason Hughes changed that in 2014.

Hughes, a third generation horseman from Stratford, P.E.I., is coming off a breakout season with 180 driving wins and 100 training wins. Those numbers garnered him national attention as a nominee for the O'Brien Award of Horsemanship.

"It was a great honour to be nominated with top horsemen like Dustin Jones and Bill Davis," Hughes, 41, told Trot Insider.

Hughes was the top driver during Summerside's 2014 meet with 47 wins and the top dash-winning trainer with 22. He capped off 2014 by tying Marc Campbell for the driving title with 126 wins at Charlottetown along with a meet-leading 75 training victories. The key to a career year for Hughes in 2014? Outstanding support.

"It all came down to having good owners and good staff working with me," continued Hughes. "Owners that were able to buy good, decent horses and being able to drive and train them.

"I also had other owners and trainers give me the opportunity to drive good horses."

That support was consistent through the entire year; support that has been building for the last three years, in fact. Hughes concluded his third consecutive 100-win season as a driver in 2014, increasing both his training and driving win numbers throughout that span.

"I ended up 2013 pretty good so when 2014 started I was getting listed on quite a few," Hughes recalled. "As the days went on, and my owners that I train for got some decent horses, they raced very well and other people just continued to list me on good horses."

The key word in that last sentence: good. Hughes pointed out that while the quantity of drives and horses in his barn was up from previous years, the quality of those horses and those drives were also better.

"I ended the season with 100 training wins, which is pretty uncommon around here now. It was quality horses, better horses...all my owners had real good horses and gave me the opportunity to train them and it just spiraled from there."

One of the horses that 'The Blue Knight' points to as a standout from his 2014 season is pacer Say It Again Sam, who was unbeatable for most of the year after coming to him from Ontario.

"He came from Tony O'Sullivan in the spring. He wasn't racing well enough in Ontario so the owner moved him to P.E.I. He gained some confidence here and won 10 in a row....he helped out.

"Horses like Astor, Red Rock...and the overnight horses all seemed to race very well, so it was a combination of them all, really."

Say It Again Sam is now back in training with Hughes, but two of his other top performers from last season have been relocated -- a testament to the class of those horses. Red Rock is now with Rene Allard and racing at Yonkers while Astor was purchased by U.S. interests and has moved to the Richard Banca barn.

With 20 horses currently in the barn, Hughes is staying busy with the younger horses while the veteran racehorses get a slight vacation. Given the weather that's pelted Canada's East coast, they likely don't mind the rest.

"We received 80 centimetres of snow," Hughes stated. "Until the middle of January, it was pretty good. We didn't have much snow. Now... well, we're managing it. Training is set back a bit but we're still getting them trained and jogged."

Among those 20 horses are five two-year-olds including two Ontario-eligible colts (one by Big Jim, the other by Mister Big) and three Maritime-breds (two by Proven Lover, one by Bo W). One of those two-year-olds includes his brother Kurt as an owner. Kurt was starting to make a name for himself as a driver in Ontario in 2008 when an off-track accident relegated him to a wheelchair. Kurt has since moved back to P.E.I. and even makes the occasional trip to the track to check in on Jason's progress with the two-year-old.

"He gets down to the track now and then. He's been in to watch his filly in training."

As the date for live harness racing to return to Charlottetown is roughly two months away, Hughes is eager to get back in action and remains realistic on his goals for the upcoming season.

"It's pretty tough to top," said Hughes with a smile. "I'd be very happy if I could just continue on in 2015 as I did in 2014."