Jockey Billy Loughnane breaks new ground with record 222 winners in a calendar year

Taking up the mantle from Kieren Fallon who booted home 221 winners throughout the whole of 2003, Loughnane claimed the record winner number 222 aboard Invited for trainer George Boughey in the one-mile Win 250,000 With BetMGM's Golden Goals Handicap at Lingfield Park on the final day of 2025.

The 4/5 favourite Invited was Loughnane's 1,320th and penultimate ride of the year. His final ride, 13/8 favourite Gaiety Musical, finished third.

Loughnane had recently joined an elite group when riding his 200th winner of the year aboard Dandy Khan at Lingfield earlier in December. It has been a meteoric rise for the 19-year-old in just his third year with a licence and, unlike some of the other jockeys to have passed the 200 milestone, Loughnane has been restricted to riding at one meeting per day due to the rule changes following the pandemic.

Loughnane said on Wednesday's Nick Luck Daily Podcast: "If you'd have told me in January, when I'd just come back from Australia, that I would have the year that I have had I would have said you were bonkers.

"But it's been a dream year and I'm very lucky to be riding for some good people and riding some good horses.

"I've had momentum since the start of the year which has been great. Since I've come back (to Britain), I got rocking and rolling with the all-weather set on my mind. My agent Tony Hind is the best, he's done a great job all year and I've got a really stable base of trainers that keep supporting me with some nice horses.

"I'm very hungry for winners. Every horse I get on, I want to try and win on it and I'm sick if I'm sat in the weighing room and there's a race going on and I'm not in it. I just want to ride as many winners as possible."

Speaking about his progression this year in particular, the teenager said: "I've learnt to really relax and let it happen a bit more. The past two years I was almost trying to rush everything and if things didn't quite go right I'd dwell on it for too long. Having good people around me this year, I've really managed to (understand) that there's always another day to try and put things right.

"George Boughey is massive, I speak to him every day, even if I'm not riding for him I'll speak to him about stuff about life in general. He's like an older brother really. I speak to my dad a lot, there's loads of people around me."

Looking to the future, he added: "Trying to get more of the Group 1 rides (would be a goal). The Breeders' Cup this year was brilliant, I was very luck to ride for Charlie (Appleby) and everyone for Godolphin, both horses ran really well. But when they're running well and not winning it makes you hungrier to try and go back and ride more winners there.

"George has been very good at allowing me to be available as much as possible and I'm very lucky to be in a position where I am, when Will (Buick, Godolphin's number one rider in Britain) and James (Doyle) aren't available I can pick up a few of the spares. It's great, I'm going to Meydan after riding on Thursday for a couple of months and I'm looking forward to what the winter has in store."

Invited was also a landmark winner for Boughey who was saddling his 100th winner of the year and, speaking on Monday, he told the Nick Luck Daily Podcast: "Billy has worked incredibly hard, and it's not lost on me that he spent the winter in Australia before coming back to ride these winners. So he's a huge part of our team, and was riding out for us this morning.

"I heard someone saying the other day that he's had a very busy three weeks to try and do it. I think he's had a very busy 51 weeks to try and do it!

"As soon as I met him, he was that driven young man that wanted to do what he's doing at the moment. It's never wavered, and his ability to stay fit and healthy is as much of a credit to him as his riding is. It's the back-end of December and he's never been ill, he's never been injured, and that's a big part of it."

The most winners ever recorded in a calendar year in Britain is 269, a record set by Gordon Richards in 1947.

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