Libertango delivers for Boughey and late sub Loughnane
The champion jockey was not initially supposed to be riding the filly.
Libertango came with a sustained late run under substitute jockey Billy Loughnane to win the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint at Keeneland.
In the days leading up to the race new UK champion jockey Loughnane had resigned himself to not taking the mount as her weight of 8st 7lb was 3lb lower than he had ridden at all season.
Loughnane could not face the prospect of seeing someone else take the mount, though, and having made a concerted effort in recent days to keep the weight off, one final stint in the sauna saw him meet the required point on the scales and trainer George Boughey was only happy to stand by his stable jockey.
Flavien Prat was the unlucky man to miss out, but bar meeting a slight but of trouble on the turn for home behind Andrew Balding’s Moonrise, everything else went to plan.
Wesley Ward’s Ruiva was the one to catch before Harper’s Corner briefly hit the front only for Libertango to swamp them all. Adrian Keatley’s Hell Of A Spin ran a massive race to get up for second.
Loughnane said: “I don’t know what to say. I’ve ridden this filly in every single race and in every piece of work she’s ever done and I thought I was going to have to give up the ride on her today.
“I’ve watched my weight for the last two weeks, obviously condolences to Flavien but I managed to just get enough off in the sauna and I’m sat on the smallest saddle I’ve ever ridden on. It’s good to be able to get the weight off.
“It was awful thinking someone else was going to ride her but big thanks to George and all the team, it was literally 45 minutes before the race it was confirmed.
“She has such a good racing brain, she went to sleep. There was interference on the turn but she didn’t even break stride and when I moved her out she hit the wire fantastic.
“I’m riding at 8st 10lb later on so I’d been aiming for that and I’d never been down to 8st 5lb all the time I’ve been riding, but it’s a massive advantage having saunas here, we don’t have them in England.”
Boughey said: “Credit to Billy I didn’t think he would do the weight but the saunas helped and it’s the stuff of dreams. All credit to Billy as that was some ride.
“Flavien was meant to ride and it was a very late decision. Billy had ridden her all year and he text me when he got to the track saying he weighed in a lot lighter than he expected. I’d like to apologise to Flavien because he’d been booked a while and it was probably one of his better mounts of the day.
“The race look mapped out for her even from Royal Ascot. That was the plan to come here and for her to train as well as she did through the last few races, it wasn’t a huge surprise that she was able to put in a performance like that today.
“The Breeders’ Cup for me is as good as it gets. She’s been ridden so beautifully by Billy all year. To say he wasn’t riding her until 55 minutes before the race, he’s just an extraordinary talent.”