(Reuters) - Ireland's Billy Loughnane was crowned Britain's champion jockey at Ascot on Saturday, making the 20-year-old the youngest rider to win the title in more than a century. Loughnane beat fellow Irishman and five-time champion Oisin Murphy, 31, to become the youngest winner since Charlie Elliott in 1923.
“Nearly four years ago when I was going up to Newcastle for my first ride, my aim then was just to have a few winners really," Loughnane said on a Great British Racing media call earlier this week.
"If anyone had said that day that four years later I’d be where I am now I’d have said they were absolutely crazy."
The 20-year-old, who has recorded more than 220 victories this year, will now turn his sights to Gordon Richards' 1947 record of 269 winners in a calendar year.