Billy Loughnane suffers major blow to champion jockey title bid with 11-day ban

Billy Loughnane’s bid for a first champion jockey title has suffered a major blow just as the Flat season was getting going. The 19-year-old rising star and former champion apprentice was crowned champion all-weather jockey last month.

That success, which he gained despite spending a significant chunk of the winter riding in , was to be the springboard to a concerted bid for the Flat jockeys’ championship. Loughnane, who burst onto the scene as a 16-year-old, finished fourth in last year’s title race, riding 97 winners in the campaign which runs from May to October.

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He is the winning-most jockey in 2025 with 64 winners but at a very early stage of Flat Turf season he is well down the rankings, headed by William Buick, in 28th place with three wins.

In a recent post about the jockeys’ championship, Loughnane was one of five riders identified as contenders for the crown, currently held by Oisin Murphy

Loughnane, who rides as first jockey to Newmarket trainer George Boughey, rode two winners at last year and was shortlisted along with Buick, Rossa Ryan, Tom Marquand and Hollie Doyle.

However he will now be on the sidelines during a very busy period of the campaign and miss both the Derby and Oaks as a result of a riding offence at Newcastle on Sunday.

Loughname was riding the Boughey-trained 4-6 favourite Orange Sky in a 7f novice stakes on the tapeta track.

The three-year-old led the field but then hung right and bumped into another rival, causing it to become unbalanced. Orange Sky was to finish third.

However the stewards called in Loughnane about the interference and he was suspended for 11 days for improper riding.

He was deemed to have caused “considerable interference having carried out a manoeuvre when it ought to have been obvious that in doing so interference would occur.”

Loughnane will be banned from May 26 to June 5.