On September 8, 2023, as reported in the ‘Racing Post’, Billy Loughnane rode Lambert, trained by George Boughey, to a comfortable victory in a novice stakes race at Kempton, taking his career total to 95 and thereby riding out his remaining 3lb claim. Loughnane, who only turned 17 on March 2, 2023, had his first ride in public on Starfighter, trained by his father, Mark, at Newcastle on October 24, 2022, and rode his first winner, Swiss Rowe, also trained by Loughnane Snr., at a fog-bound Wolverhampton on November 28, 2022.
‘Billy The Kid’ joined the senior ranks just over nine months later, a feat made all the remarkable for the fact that he spent a few weeks in the United States riding work for Anna Meah, whose husband David is a friend of his father, in February, 2023, and a few more on the sidelines, having suffered a fractured thumb in a stalls incident at Nottingham on July 21, 2023. Loughnane broke through, in dramatic fashion, in early 2023, riding 23 winners in January, 11 more in March, following his Stateside sabbatical, and being crowned champion all-weather apprentice, with a total of 41 winners, at the All-Weather Vase meeting at Lingfield Park, on April 7, 2023.
At the last count, the rising star of the weighing room had ridden a total of 89 winners in 2023, so far, 16 of which were saddled by his father. Since the start of the apprentice jockeys’ championship on May 6, 2023, he has, at the time of writing, ridden 44 winners, giving him a lead of 12 over his nearest rival, defending champion Benoit de la Sayette, with 40 days left until British Champions Day at Ascot on October 21, 2023.