Trainer John O’Shea believes teenage jockey Billy Loughnane is a genuine star in the making.
The 18-year-old Irish-born British hoop is in Australia for a two-month stint where he will spend his time riding in Sydney for O’Shea and co-trainer Tom Charlton, as well as the Gai Waterhouse/Adrian Bott stable, John Sargent, and the Annabel Neasham/Rob Archibald team, among others.
O’Shea identified the talents of superstar James McDonald early on so is well-versed to pass judgment on a budding rider such as Loughnane who won last season’s Champion Apprentice award in the UK.
He has Loughnane heading towards the heights of Ryan Moore, who along with McDonald, is considered one of the world’s premier jockeys.
“I think very highly of him,” O’Shea said of Loughnane on SENTrack’s Giddy Up.
“He’s got a great ability to assess a race. Rosehill is a very tricky track to ride. We give him a couple of videos and a bit of chat and he nailed it on his first day.
“I said to him, ‘There’s boys who have been riding 10 years in Sydney and are still making mistakes at Rosehill’.
“He’s got a very bright future. He’s so young, he’s a bit like when ‘Mac’ (McDonald) came when he was only 18.
“To my eye he’s the next Ryan Moore. So we’re happy to assist him the best we can at this early stage.
“Being in Sydney will help him, it will just sharpen him up a little bit. He made a little blue in the last race yesterday (at Warwick Farm) which he won’t make again.
“I think he’s just going to be a champion one day.”
O’Shea says Loughnane’s dedication to the craft and desire to succeed is similar to that of Moore, McDonald and other great jockeys before him.
“He’d watched all the video of all the horses we’ve put him on in the last week going into the races,” he added.
“He’d watched all the races at Rosehill, how to negotiate around that track before he got to the races.
“That level of application, along with his innate ability, is going to stand him in good stead and will make him one of the greats of the English turf in the coming years.”
Loughnane rode a winner for O’Shea and Charlton aboard Hovland at Hawkesbury on December 15.
He has one ride at Newcastle today (Thursday) on Bartolf for that same training duo before suiting up for two rides at Canterbury on Friday night and then eight rides at Randwick on Saturday.
This news appeared first on @REN
