Hunger Game: Loughnane reveals battle to ride Libertango

By Andy Stephens

Last Updated: Fri 30 Oct 2026

Loughnane savours victory (Healy Racing)

Champion jockey Billy Loughnane pulled out all the stops to ride Libertango before guiding her to victory in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint at Keeneland on Friday night.

In the days leading up to the race new 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.

Watch what Loughnane had to say above..

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