Turf Talk: Champion Jockey Billy Loughnane targets more winners
Turf Talk, with horse racing expert Jeff Garlick.
Champions Day at Ascot last week saw Billy Loughnane crowned Champion Jockey for the first time, and at 20 years of age, he is the youngest to win the title since 1923.
He is now on a mission to try to beat the 269 winners in a calendar year amassed by Gordon Richards in 1947.
The title of Champion Flat racing trainer is still up in the air though, as that competition does not end until December 31 and is based on prize money won.
Aidan O’Brien has a narrow lead of £80,000 over Andrew Balding, and he is putting a strong team out at Doncaster and Newbury to try to secure his ninth trainer’s title.
The Futurity Trophy Stakes at Doncaster on Saturday is the final Group One race of the season and carries £275,000 of prize money.
Amazingly, O’Brien has 11 of the 17 horses declared on Monday. So, a victory in a race he has already won 13 times would almost certainly wrap up the title.
It would be great to see Balding take the prize, so I am hoping that the Godolphin-owned Al Hudaiba can throw a spanner in the works by taking the £155,000 sum for finishing in first place.
Charlie Appleby, who trains Al Hudaiba, could also pick up the feature race at Newbury with Aegean Prince.
With William Buick likely to be at Doncaster, the aforementioned Loughnane comes in for the ride on this talented four-year-old, who was impressive when triumphing by seven lengths on his seasonal debut at Haydock.
It could be a good day for the ‘Boys In Blue’ at Godolphin as they run Flower Show in the Listed race, again ridden by young Billy The Kid.
The Horris Hill Stakes at Newbury could fall to the Karl Burke trained Golden Souk. He ran very green when making his racecourse debut at Redcar last month but still won well in a decent time and can only improve for that outing.
Garlick’s Goodies: Saturday Doncaster 13:30 – Al Hudaiba; Newbury 14:35 – Aegean Prince; 15:10 – Golden Souk; 15:45 – Flower Show.