Loughnane opens Group 1 win account in Germany

New Paper

3 days ago

English workhorse Rebel's Romance gave teenage riding sensation Billy Loughnane his first taste of Group 1 success in Germany's €155,000 (S$232,000) Grosser Preis von Berlin (2,400m) at Hoppegarten on Aug 10.
While Rebel's Romance is seven years of age and Loughnane, 19, Godolphin's stalwart galloper would be in relative terms the more seasoned half of the combination, both in terms of Group 1 haul and years of experience.
For starters, when Rebel's Romance made a winning debut in a stakes race at Newcastle in October 2020, Loughnane had not even clocked in his first race ride.
The globetrotting son of Dubawi is now the veteran of 28 starts and 19 wins, including eight at Group 1 level across four countries - Hong Kong, US, Dubai and Germany, where two of them came in that Berlin classic having won his first in 2022, and the other two in Cologne for a perfect four-from-four on their Anglo-Saxon neighbour's soil.
But when Loughnane, the son of trainer Mark, who moved to Worcestershire in England with a young Billy in tow in 2011, finally made his baptism of fire in 2022, a new star was born.
The Irish wunderkind wasted no time in scooping up winners in spades, landing the UK champion apprentice jockey title in 2023.
In that relatively short timespan of his budding riding career, 12 of the winners were "black types" - seven in Listed races, four Group 3s and his highest acclaim thus far in the Group 2 Coventry Stakes (1,200m) for two-year-olds at Royal Ascot in 2024.
But the Holy Grail of all jockeys, a Group 1 silverware was still missing from his trophy cabinet - until a career-defining call from Charlie Appleby.
The Godolphin trainer was seeking a pinch-hitter, given Rebel's Romance's regular partner William Buick was committed to Shadow Of Light in the Group 1 Maurice de Gheest (1,300m) in France on the same day.
In an ironic twist, Buick was left watching both races on TV from the Deauville jockeys' room after Shadow Of Light was scratched a few minutes before the de Gheest.
The two-time British champion jockey would have, however, been flushed with pride with Loughnane's 10-out-of-10 handling of his pet horse, even more so with the nod the baby-faced jockey gave him at the post-race interview.
"Big thanks to Will, he spoke to me last night and told me exactly what to do. The horse is a superstar," said Loughnane to German presenter Thorsten Castle, while walking Rebel's Romance on the lush green Hoppegarten home straight on his way to the winner's enclosure.
"It's a feeling I can't describe, a feeling of ecstasy.
"What a star of a horse, he's been going for a couple of seasons now.
"I'm very lucky to be riding in these colours, have the opportunity to sit on a horse like this."
Appleby has been using Loughnane for a while now, and had no hesitation in taking a chance on the young rider for the Group 1 mission.
From his cool handling the second the starter sent the field of six on their way, one would have been hard-pushed to see any pressure weighing on his young shoulders.
Putting in a heady ride beyond his years, he parked the $8 favourite (as short as 1-5 in UK) outside leader Junko (Rene Piechulek), the 2023 Hong Kong Vase winner who set a steady tempo in a bid to turn the 135th renewal of the Berlin feature into a sprint in the last 500m.
The leading duo paired off for the final tussle upon cornering, with Rebel's Romance's superior class eventually prevailing by three parts of a length, for a milestone which had been in the offing in Loughnane's meteoric rise.
"It means so much for Billy as a young man to win a Group 1, it's fabulous," said Godolphin's managing director Hugh Anderson, representing the Blue Army at Hoppergarten with Appleby in Deauville.
"The horse's sire Dubawi has now sired 250 Group winners. That's almost unprecedented."
With Rebel's Romance's incredible affinity for Germany, the next target might be seen as a shoo-in, the Group 1 Preis von Europa (2,400m) on Sept 28.
It is the event he won in Cologne twice (2022 and 2024). Anderson was, however, non-committal.
"It'll be interesting what Charlie wants to do with Rebel's. I think he'll be working back from the Breeders' Cup," he said.
"So if he comes out of this race well, you never know, he may (go for a third Europa)."
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