From Billy The Kid To Billy The Champion

Features | 9th October 2026

Billy Loughnane will officially become British Flat racing’s youngest Champion Jockey in more than a hundred years at Qatar Racing British Champions Day.

A diminutive figure with an infectious smile and enthusiasm, Billy Loughnane hails from a family that is entrenched in racing.

Ever since he took his first steps into professional race riding as a 16-year-old rookie, he has been touted as a future champion.

At Ascot’s glittering end-of-season celebrations on Saturday 17 October, those predictions will come true when Billy is crowned as the season’s top rider.

It certainly hasn’t taken him long to realise his childhood dream. He rode his first winner on Swiss Rowe – trained by his father Mark – at Wolverhampton a little under four years ago.

From then on, his transition from pony racing sensation to fully-fledged jockey has been seamless.

Grateful punters nicknamed him ‘Billy The Kid’ due to his baby-faced features and deadly accuracy in the saddle as he rattled up the winners.

An incredible first winter, riding on the All-Weather, yielded 40 winners between November 2022 and March 2023, a start so successful it was tough to believe for many participants and fans of the sport alike.

His reputation was growing and so was his tally of winners. He ran away with the Champion Apprentice title in his first full season in 2023 and the biggest trainers in the land soon took notice.

George Boughey was quick to fend off any suitors to make him his number one rider. It proved to be a perfect fit.

The potential for Loughnane and Boughey to hit new heights in 2026 was evident.

The pair went into the season with high hopes for Bow Echo and he didn’t let them down, getting their season off to the perfect start with victory in the 2000 Guineas.

The star three-year-old miler added further Group 1 victories in the St James’s Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot and Goodwood’s Sussex Stakes.

That quality available to Billy was, very much, matched by the quantity. It became clear in the early stages of the season that he was going to be a huge threat to Oisin Murphy in the race to be Champion Jockey.

He over took the five-times champion in early July and his pursuit of his first title has been relentless.

Although his name will not be etched onto the prestigious roll of honour until Champions Day, his victory has looked inevitable long before the summer nights started to draw into autumn.

And what a glorious summer it has been for Flat racing’s newest superstar.

As well as Bow Echo’s brilliance, the 20-year-old rode Commanche Brave to victory in the July Cup at Newmarket and the Flying Five at the Curragh – both Group 1 races – for Irish trainer Donnacha O’Brien.

Godolphin trainer Charlie Appleby has been a long-time supporter of Billy. They have teamed up for several Group-race wins, including star two-year-old Desert Castle’s Group 2 Champagne Stakes success.

He is one of more than 60 trainers Billy has ridden winners for this season, with many of the biggest names in Flat racing on the list.

Charlie Elliott was the last jockey to win the Flat Jockeys’ Championship at a younger age than Billy when he shared the honour with Steve Donoghue as a 19-year-old way back in 1923.

The year 2026 will go down as the one when Billy lost ‘the kid’ from the middle of his name and added ‘Champion Jockey’ to the start .

That is a title that he is unlikely to relinquish any time soon.

It could be argued that the phrase, “you will never see anything like this ever again” is hyperbolic and overused. In the instance of the soon-to-be champion, that argument couldn’t be further from the truth.