Loughnane Hoping To Bounce Back Quickly After Thumb Injury

Billy Loughnane says that he will be “pushing to be back as soon as I can” after a thumb injury suffered at Nottingham has left him facing a spell on the sidelines.

The 17-year-old has established himself as one of the rising stars of the weighing room since bursting onto the scene over the winter and is bearing down on a century of winners having continued to have success throughout the summer.

However, his quest for triple figures has been halted following the injury sustained in a stalls incident aboard the Ed Dunlop-trained Lucidity on Friday night.

He said, “I'm taking it day by day and I'll be back as soon as I can. It's obviously frustrating and hard at the minute, watching the horses you could have been on run, but I have had over 500 rides now and been lucky not to pick anything up so far. It's annoying, the timing of it, but it's just one of those things.”

Loughnane could represent Ireland in the Racing League upon his return and is a general 14-1 chance to finish top jockey in the competition. 

He added, “I am looking forward to it, to be part of the Racing League is great. Hopefully I'll be there for a few of the meetings. I was born in Ireland and class myself as Irish, so I'm looking forward to representing Ireland.

“Hopefully it can boost me a little bit and give me the chance to ride for a few different trainers and get myself to the next level a little bit. It's hopefully going to be a good place to build contacts and there's great prize-money as well. Fingers crossed, I get a bit of luck and can ride a couple of winners.”

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Seven Days: All The Young Dudes

We're starting to feel a little long in the tooth in this corner. The racing equivalent to the observation about policemen looking young these days now applies to the weighing-room, and on Saturday one young gun after another came out with a performance that would entitle them to be considered the next big thing. 

Benoit de la Sayette has already achieved plenty in his nascent career. Now 20, he had his first ride in November 2020 and became the first apprentice attached to John Gosden's stable in almost 30 years. 

On Saturday he won the Lincoln for the second time in three years aboard the David Menuisier-trained top weight Migration (Ire) (Alhebayeb {Ire}). Last October, de la Sayette was crowned champion apprentice, a title that could probably have been his a year earlier if he had not been banned for six months after testing positive for cocaine not long after his first Lincoln victory on Haqeeqy (Ire) (Lope De Vega {Ire}).

Chasing him up in last year's apprentice race was Harry Davies, who has just turned 18 and is attached to the powerful Kinsgclere academy which has produced so many good apprentices over the years. Currently on 70 winners, it won't be long before Davies loses his 3lb claim and, as he demonstrated nicely on Saturday evening, he's every bit as good without it. Charlie Appleby was swift to notice Davies's talents and has used the young jockey with some frequency, including in the Cardinal Conditions S. at Chelmsford, in which he was unable to claim but still got the job done nicely to win aboard Bold Act (Ire) (New Approach {Ire}), who heads next to a Classic trial.

While Davies was wintering in Bahrain then preserving what's left of his claim, a new name came to the fore on the all-weather circuit: Billy Loughnane. Now with 42 wins to his credit, 36 of which have come this year, the youngster only turned 17 last month and is currently lying in third in the overall jockeys' standings. Returned from a stint riding in America, he won the first turf race of the season, the Brocklesby S., in which he too was unable to use his claim. 

Loughnane's winning mount, Doddie's Impact (GB), is named after the late rugby star Doddie Weir, who died from motor neurone disease (MND) last November. The son of Pearl Secret (GB) was bred by Ciaran and Nicola Paterson and was bought for £6,000 as a yearling by his trainer Robyn Brisland, who is now dreaming of Royal Ascot.

Cross Channel Racing, which owns Doddie's Impact, has pledged 50% of his prize-money and any sale proceeds to the My Name'5 Doddie Foundation which raises funds towards vital research into MND. There will be plenty of people willing this colt to keep winning.

Honourable mentions must also go to apprentices Jonny Peate, who won the Lincoln consolation race, the Spring Mile, on Harswell Duke (GB) (Garswood {GB}), and to Connor Planas, who landed both divisions of the apprentice handicap at Doncaster in a rare Flat double for Grand National-winning trainer Lucinda Russell. 

Hold That Thought

In the centenary year of the Wildenstein family's racing and breeding operation, a Classic winner would certainly be fitting, and there would arguably be no race more appropriate for Diane Wildenstein to win than the Prix de Diane. 

The owner-breeder, who races under the name of Ballymore Thoroughbred, is currently in pole position for the 'French Oaks', with her unbeaten filly Pensee Du Jour (Ire) (Camelot {GB}), who progressed from her facile victory in the Listed Prix Rose de Mai to take Saturday's G3 Prix Penelope with similar ease. 

Pensee Du Jour's family has already been represented by a winner of the Prix de Diane in the 1976 victrix Pawneese (Ire) (Carvin {Fr}), who also won the Penelope en route to victories in the Oaks at Epsom and the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth S.  in her sensational season for Angel Penna Sr. Pawneese was a half-sister to Pensee Du Jour's third dam, the Group 3 winner Petroleuse (Fr) (Habitat). The celebrated dynasty also includes the Arc winner Peintre Celebre (Nureyev) and star stayer Stradivarius (Ire) (Sea The Stars {Ire}), who is a great grandson of Pawneese. 

Brazen Doncaster Double 

Sunday's results at Leopardstown had a largely familiar feel to them with Aidan O'Brien winning both Guineas trials courtesy of Hans Andersen (GB) (Frankel {GB}) and Never Ending Story (Ire) (Camelot {GB}). 

At Doncaster on the first day of the British turf season, results were more evenly spread with some notable results for smaller stables and less-heralded stallions.

Australian sprinter Brazen Beau (Aus) hasn't stood in the northern hemisphere since 2019, but fillies from his second and third crops, Vadream (GB) and Astral Beau (GB), gave him a stakes double. The former, who has also won the G3 Bengough S. at Ascot, was the comfortable winner of the Listed Cambridge Trophy in her preferred muddy conditions for Charlie Fellowes, while Astral Beau took a major step forward to notch her first stakes victory in the Listed Doncaster Mile for trainer/breeder Pam Sly.

The Sly family has enjoyed much success with Astral Beau's family. Her grand-dam Speciosa (Ire) (Danehill Dancer {Ire}) pulled off a famous triumph in the 1,000 Guineas 17 years ago and has produced five winners, including Asteroidea (GB) (Sea The Stars {Ire}), the dam of Astral Beau, and Specialty (Ire) (Oasis Dream {GB}), whose daughter Eileendover (GB) (Canford Cliffs {Ire}) won a Listed bumper and later scored on the Flat at Newmarket.

The trainer now plans to return to Newmarket's Guineas meeting, with the aim of running Astral Beau in the G2 Dahlia S.

Birch Flying

Cheveley Park Stud, who were once more celebrating victory at the Cheltenham Festival last month, will be turning their attention towards the Flat even though a few juicy jumping targets remain this season. 

With the treble Group 1 winner Inspiral (GB) (Frankel {GB}) set to headline this year's Flat team, several colts bred by the stud got the ball rolling in other owners' colours. Arguably most pleasing of all for the Cheveley Park team was the victory of White Birch (GB), who provided his sire Ulysses (Ire) with back-to-back winners of the G3 Ballysax S. after Piz Badile (Ire) last year. 

White Birch, who really should be owned by Peter Brant, is out of the 98-rated Dutch Art (GB) mare Diagnostic (GB). He made his first two starts in the colours of his trainer John Joseph Murphy until being sold privately to race for Chantal Regalado-Gonzalez.

Another grey colt from the same Cheveley Park Stud crop, Theoryofeverything (GB) Frankel {GB}), made a striking debut on Sunday when winning a Doncaster novice race by six lengths in ground that had dried overnight from heavy to soft.

Now owned by Prince AA Faisal, Theoryofeverything had a yearling price tag of 325,000gns, reflecting his breeding. His dam Persuasive (Ire (Dark Angel {Ire}) won the G1 Queen Elizabeth II S. and her Dubawi (Ire) juvenile colt is now with Godolphin, having fetched 1 million gns at last year's October Sale.

Amazing Both Sides of the Atlantic

There was a Franco-German one-three in Saturday's GIII Orchid S. at Gulfstream when French ex-pat Christophe Clement saddled Amazing Grace (Ger) (Protectionist {Ger}) to win on her American debut, with fellow German-bred and stable-mate Atomic Blonde (Ger) (The Grey Gatsby {Ire}) in third.

Both mares went through the ring at Arqana last December, when Dr Christoph Berglar's homebred Amazing Grace sold to Moyglare Stud for €850,000 and a private sale of €340,000 was agreed for The Atomic Blonde. Breeder Michaela Faust, who owns Gestut Karlshof with husband Bruno, has retained part-ownership of the latter and now races the Italian Group 3 winner with West Point Thoroughbreds and Heather Winter. Incidentally, Amazing Grace and The Atomic Blonde had filled the same two places when racing against each other in last year's G2 T von Zastrow Stutenpreis at Baden-Baden. 

The winner wasn't the only high-profile purchase for Moyglare Stud at Arqana last year. Malavath (Ire) (Mehmas {Ire}), winner of the G2 Criterium de Maisons-Laffitte and runner-up to Clement's Pizza Bianca (Fastnet Rock {Aus}) in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf, has also now joined the Clement barn to race for Moyglare's Eva Maria Bucher-Haefner.

Closer to home, the Irish-based, Swiss-owned operation can look forward to the return of last year's Irish 1,000 Guineas winner Homeless Songs (Ire) (Frankel {GB}) in Wednesday's Heritage S. at Leopardstown.

Starstruck by Mr Hollywood

Germany placed itself on the TDN Rising Stars list early for the season when the glitzily-named Mr Hollywood (Ger) was pushed out with just hands and heels by Leon Wolff to win on debut for Henk Grewe at Mulheim. 

There was a lot to like about the race. Firstly, who doesn't love a flag start on the Flat? Far better than the angst of starting stalls. And Mr Hollywood, as pointed out by Tom Frary, did indeed add some movie star sparkle to a grey day in Mulheim. 

His sire Iquitos (Ger), who signed off from his racing career at the age of six with victory in the Grosser Preis von Bayern to add to his two previous Group 1 wins, is a son of Adlerflug (Ger), the stallion who sadly died just as the rest of Europe suddenly realised he was really rather good. The only other Adlerflug sire remaining in Germany is the more widely known Torquator Tasso (Ger), now in his first season at Gestut Auenquelle.

Iquitos stood for two seasons at Gestut Ammerland before moving last year to Gestut Graditz, south of Berlin, where he covers for €5,000. Mr Hollywood was the first of only five foals born in his debut crop. The following year that number dropped to two, and he had 13 registered foals last year. It's fair to say that Iquitos has not exactly been well supported in his stud career to date. Perhaps Mr Hollywood might prompt a rush of late bookings this season. 

Let's Get Quizzical

Two members of the TDN Europe team were lured to Co Carlow last week to take part in the the Mark O'Hanlon Memorial Racing and Breeding Quiz at the famous Lord Bagenal Inn.

The last time this quiz had taken part in 2020 was just before the Covid shutters came down on the world. One can normally expect to find Willie Mullins on a team in his local, and it can only be presumed that his absence this time around was as a result of the lingering embarrassment at having answered one of the questions about himself incorrectly three years ago. 

There was no such shame for the trainers in attendance last week. Richard Fahey remembered that he had trained 235 winners in 2015, Pat Fahey was able to name his winner of the November Handicap, and Joseph O'Brien recalled the name of his brother's first Classic winner, guiding his team of JJ Slevin, Kevin Blake and Mark Hackett into a dead-heat for second with Luke Barry, Nancy Sexton, Brian Sheerin and myself. 

I had hoped to sign up a ringer when I saw Ryan Moore waiting in the queue for my flight to Dublin. I swiftly thought the better of it as I passed him by and could have sworn that I saw his look of vague recognition change in a heartbeat to one of horror at the thought that he might have to spend the flight sitting next to an annoying member of the Fourth Estate. 

Fortunately for Moore, our seats were far apart. He disembarked to go and do what he does best, and rode a winner at Navan that afternoon. I headed to Leighlinbridge and followed that time-honoured tradition observed by racing journalists of starting an argument in a pub quiz and staying up drinking into the early hours. We all have our calling. 

A brave person might say that quiz organiser Joe Foley is something of a control enthusiast. His own version of 'the umpire's decision is final' was read out at the start and went along the lines of 'the answers are the answers even if they are wrong'. A few bold quizzers approached the front desk to challenge Foley through the evening but were swiftly sent packing, and almost certainly docked several points for the audacity of the challenge.

I'm not usually a favourite-backer, but the identity of the winning team was never really in doubt. The unimpeachable Ryan McElligott, who had turned down several large bungs to jump ship, lifted the trophy along with Bobby and Mouse O'Ryan and Ger Connelly.

Richard Fahey was less fortunate than Ryan Moore when he was obliged to share his breakfast table the next morning with two journalists and the indefatigable Foley, who had presumably overseen at least three covers at Ballyhane Stud across the road before returning to the Lord Bagenal.

Foley spent much of breakfast looking at videos of various horses on Fahey's phone. The words “rocket” and “Queen Mary filly” were uttered in hushed tones and when an enquiry as to the identity of this speedball was issued, the stallion master wasted no time in replying with a grin, “She's by Soldier's Call”.

Fahey rashly promised to allow the TDN to visit his yard, but only on the proviso that I muck out ten boxes before being granted an interview. Happily, along with arguing in pub quizzes, mucking out is one activity at which I'm fairly proficient. In the coming weeks, I'll head to Yorkshire, pitchfork in hand, with the aim of extracting the name of this year's Queen Mary winner.

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An Overnight Sensation Built On Rock

They're calling him Billy The Kid. He only got his licence in October but when he left the all-weather circuit last month, for a three-week stint in Florida, he was Britain's leading jockey with 23 wins from 98 mounts in January. And, for another week anyway, he's just 16 years old.

It's so extraordinary that Billy Loughnane has even been featured on the evening news by the BBC, a gratifying departure from the indifference of mainstream media to all but the least flattering tales of the Turf.

On the face of it, he has risen without trace. But actually this implausibly compressed breakout has been a long time in the making–and not merely in terms of the proportion of Billy's young life fanatically dedicated to a precocious sense of vocation. Because before Mark Loughnane suddenly found himself being described as Billy's father, Billy was Mark Loughnane's son. And you can be certain of one thing: whatever Billy's future may hold, his prospects are immeasurably enhanced by the decades of unsung daily endeavour that have taken a whole family to this point.

Naturally Mark is proud to see the blossoming of a talent he has long known to be out of the ordinary. But it has not just been Billy's apprentice claim that has driven the stable's prolific start to 2023, with 17 winners already from only 76 runners. (Other jockeys have ridden seven of those, from 41 starters.) To put that in context, Mark's best campaign to date comprised 41 wins in 2021.

And if you come and visit Rock Farm Stables, in a glorious bowl of undulating Worcestershire countryside, it all stands to reason. After a long education in old-school jumping yards, both sides of the Irish Sea, Mark has had to make several fresh starts since going solo in 2002. And it is only in coming to this sumptuous, purpose-built facility, five years ago, that he has finally been able to give full rein to the talent and passion so immediately apparent in his adolescent son.

Mark Loughnane | Liz Vanegas de Quickenden

“It's taken me 30, 40 years in the industry to get to where I am today,” Mark acknowledges. “This place is a five-star hotel for these horses and we're very, very lucky. We've got everything here and in the last couple of years we're just starting to build to a better grade of a horse.

“It's a slow burn. I wish I had all this 20 years ago. But when you start with zero, and have to make your own way, you can only build gradually. When the recession hit, I was coming over from Ireland to Wolverhampton with a 50% strike-rate, win and place. And Clare said, 'Why don't we come over?' So we started again. That was just 10 years ago. We got in the truck, there were 10 horses, an Alsatian and our two boys.”

Mark had five years in Staffordshire but the game-changer was the chance to move into a yard established by Steve and Anita Mares. Every facility was tailormade in consultation with Mark–including uphill and round gallops, and copious turnout paddocks–and now 60 heads peer from stalls in the American barn. Mark has been in the game too long to think that he will have the Guineas favourite this time next year, but nor should his climbing graph-lines be neglected as incidental to the explosive start made by Billy to his own career.

“People kind of put me down as an all-weather trainer,” Mark says with a shrug. “That doesn't annoy me or anything. But you have to cut your cloth according to the horses you get. It's very hard to get to the next level, but hopefully we'll have a few more grass horses this year. We've a very loyal bunch of owners, I have a lot of good people around me, and I'm sure a good one will come in the door. You just have to say to yourself that every horse that comes into this yard could be the one.”

Father and son could not have taken more contrasting routes into the racing game. Billy is the ultimate example of nature and nurture combining to make his career feel inevitable from boyhood. Mark, however, had no background whatsoever in the sport, beyond his father replacing flattened hurdles and treading down turf at their local track, Thurles.

“And we'd go up the next day and muck out all the boxes and put back all the divots,” Mark recalls. “Then I went into a stable one day and rubbed one on the head, and that was it. I never went back to school. I had my first job with Tommy Stack when I was 15 and have never been away from them since.”

For Billy to prove such a natural, presumably there was always something latent in Mark too. After all, his wife Clare knew nothing at all about horses albeit they happened to meet at Cheltenham races (and he now credits her with a huge role in the operation of the yard). But it's hard to identify the nature or source of that flair for the horse, somehow discovered by Mark and so obviously inherited by Billy.

“Since Billy was born he was on my heels and, for him, there was no way out,” Mark reflects. “He always wanted it. For me, when I was young, I suppose it was that no matter what sport I tried, I'd try to be the best. If I was no good, I'd try something else. I was lucky enough to ride a few winners, not many, but also to work for a lot of good men. And back in the day, if you were interested, you'd learn. Every yard I went into, I went in as an ordinary lad and most of the time ended up probably running it, or assistant.”

The farm's uphill gallop | Liz Vanegas de Quickenden

He had a key role, for instance, in Terry Casey's preparation of 1996 Grand National winner Rough Quest. Casey had his troubles in too short a life, but Mark learned a lot from him, as from other mentors Edward O'Grady, Enda Bolger and, above all, Pat Doyle.

“Pat's attention to detail was unreal,” he says. “I did three and a half years with him. If you got something wrong, he let you know! Those days are gone now. The kids coming into it now, I don't think it's the same. So I feel I've very lucky in that sphere, and I'm still very friendly with a lot of the trainers I worked for.”

When setting up on his own, Mark had two winners at the Galway Festival in his first week. If that instant success proved rather a mirage, nor was it an obvious turning point when, sitting in Ron Harris's kitchen 19 years ago, one of his fellow trainer's owners drove up. When Mark moved over the water, Steve Mares supported him with a couple of horses before one day approaching him, out of the blue, about running a new stable.

After rejecting another site, they drove into a farm in the hamlet of Rock and Mark was immediately excited by its potential.

“I was able to come in and design the whole place,” Mark says gratefully. “Steve took a year out of work and oversaw the whole thing. When you've been in different yards all your life, you see good things and bad things everywhere. And I've tried to take the best points and this is the result.”

Now Billy is helping to put the place on the map, too. But all his father's experience certainly told in the seasoned decision to put the brakes on a runaway train: his claim is already down to 5lbs, and needed conserving for the turf season.  Already, after all, their careful strategy has required constant revision.

“We just planned that he'd get his license in October and move him into the all-weather season with me, because that's when my horses have tended to thrive,” Mark explains. “We thought he could ride eight or 10 winners through the winter and tip away, nice and steady, and then we'd get him onto the grass.

“But then it just took off. We were going to stop him after 15 but then two days later he was at 20. So we said, okay, 25. But then in that week he rode nine winners. So I rang Rodi and his agent [Sashi Righton] and said, 'Lads, that's it, we have to stop.' I'm glad we did keep him going, because that meant he could ride a winner for Mr. Appleby in the Godolphin colours.

“But [otherwise] it has all happened very quickly, too quickly. And that's why we decided to stop. And instead of Billy being here, grafting and being driven mad watching horses he could be winning on, to send him over to America.”

Though Billy always stood out on the pony circuit, crucially he was first obliged to master principles of equitation in the show ring. He was always eager for the next step; Mark was always making him wait. Naturally there are benefits and burdens for both, when your principal counsellor and critic is also your father. Mark does remember shouting at Billy after he let one up the inside in a pony race at Nottingham, but Clare and Billy's brother Jack (himself a gifted footballer) ensure they all remain family first. And if Billy were to win the Derby itself, that won't beat the feeling they shared when he won his first pony race at Cocklebarrow point-to-point, in the mud, the little pony led in proudly by Mark's long-serving assistant Steve Davies.

“You couldn't buy that feeling for millions,” Mark says. “All along, I knew his talent. And I kept saying to Clare, 'I'm not letting him do it until he's ready.' But when we did start, we hit the ground running: he stood out from the first day.”

Now Billy has completed another valuable module in his education with this stint in Florida, riding trackwork at Palm Meadows for Anna Meah–whose husband David, the bloodstock agent, is an old collaborator of Mark's.

“A massive learning experience,” Billy confirms. “The way they do everything out there is completely different. So it was an amazing opportunity and I feel like I've learned loads. Obviously dirt's completely different to work on, and they probably don't do as much as we would, here, because it's a much more tiring surface.”

He admits that riding against the clock was a challenge. “For the first couple of days anyway!” he says. “The first day I was able to watch their riders doing it for an hour but then David [Meah] just fired me straight on a horse. But I think I got the hang of it in the end…”

Rock Farm from the air | Liz Vanegas de Quickenden

Mark doesn't allow that modesty to pass, revealing that Billy's services were soon being requested by several other barns. On the day of our visit, the family had only just got back from their trip to Miami to collect Billy. Despite the long flight, Billy had leaped from the car to work five horses and now, following a gym session, here he was on the equicizer, taking remote tuition from instructor Rodi Greene.

Such is his dedication. But that's standard to the whole environment. Greene himself, for instance, recently drove from Devon to set up the simulator in the Wolverhampton car park, so that they could have a session before the meeting–before naturally staying to observe his protégé to the last race.

“To be the best, you need to be all that, don't you?” he says. “But it's the same for us trainers, down the yard at six every morning. And my head man's there before me, feeding. And at midnight you're coming back from Newcastle without a winner. Then up again. Eat, sleep, race, repeat.

“But with Billy, this is 16 years in the making. He's been watching his weight since he's 13. You ask a kid not to eat chocolate at 13! I'd say, 'Go on, have a milkshake.' But no, he doesn't want it. So he's not pushed into it. He was just hungry for it. He's a million times better than I was, at that age. And he's hungrier, too.”

Which is saying plenty, because here is a man whose ambition is undiminished by all the familiar ups and downs of his calling.

“We've grafted, me and my wife, and there'd be days we had nothing,” Mark says. “But the minute we get a winner, be it a seller at Wolverhampton, we come back on cloud nine. And then we're back into it next day, hungry to do it again. It's been a long slog. But looking at what we're reaping now–where we live, and the place we're in, and watching Billy–makes all the struggles feel worthwhile.”

But nobody will be complacent, nor losing perspective.

“When there's an ambulance following you around every day, everything can change very quickly,” Mark says. “So we just take each day as it comes. Listen, I've been very lucky and I've met good people on my way. And Billy is lucky now that he's got my contacts, and a lot of people supporting him. Obviously, he has to be talented as well. So it's one step at a time. But yes, at the minute, we're living the dream.”

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