Oisin Murphy - 'Billy Loughnane is the most talented rider I have ever seen at his age'

Champion jockey Oisin Murphy has described last year’s champion apprentice Billy Loughnane as “the most talented rider I have ever seen at his age”.

Murphy, who was speaking at an event hosted by 4Racing at Turffontein racecourse in Johannesburg, where he is riding in Saturday’s Grade 1 Betway Summer Cup, also said he would not think about trying to win a fifth jockeys’ title until next spring at the earliest.

Loughnane, 18, has ridden 162 winners this year, including a Royal Ascot double in the Coventry Stakes on Rashabar and Sandringham Stakes on Soprano, who the jockey went on to ride in Group 1s in Ireland and the US.

Loughnane finished fourth in the jockeys’ championship behind Murphy, Rossa Ryan and Tom Marquand, and was marked out as a rider to follow.

Murphy said: “Billy Loughnane is the most talented rider I have ever seen at his age – everything is perfect; his intelligence, his use of the whip, his thoughtfulness when he gets off a horse. He's tall and that's going to be a struggle for him as he gets older, but he’s really a guy to follow.”

Billy Loughnane: champion apprenticeCredit: Patrick McCann (racingpost.com/photos)

Whether Loughnane will be competing with Murphy for the 2025 championship is up in the air after the reigning champion said he had several factors to consider over the winter.

This year’s title was Murphy’s first since returning from a 14-month ban for breaking coronavirus protocols and failing racecourse breathalyser tests for alcohol, and he is keen not to focus too much on next year for the time being.

“I refuse to think about the 2025 championship,” Murphy said. “At Ascot [on Champions Day], I said we’ll close the book on that and not discuss it again until we need to around April. I have plenty of time to ask whether I want to take that burden on my shoulders again. It’s not only the workload, but the associated pressure that if I don’t win it, is the season a success?”

Asked about the horses he was looking forward to in 2025, Murphy mentioned Sandown maiden winner Cosmic Year and Windlord, who the rider felt had been slow to mature mentally but “is a machine”. He added: “He’s only going to improve and he’ll be able to go into the big races with no pressure.”

Murphy has four rides at Turffontein on Saturday, including the Team Valor-owned Frances Ethel in the Summer Cup, which is the richest race in South Africa after total prize-money was boosted to six million rand (£261,000/€314,000) for this year’s running.

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