{"id":1030528,"date":"2026-06-16T16:33:31","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T16:33:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1030528\/"},"modified":"2026-06-16T16:33:31","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T16:33:31","slug":"billy-loughnane-lands-first-royal-ascot-group-1-win-despite-not-one-of-my-finest-rides","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1030528\/","title":{"rendered":"Billy Loughnane lands first Royal Ascot Group 1 win despite \u2018not one of my finest rides\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the rematch between the 2,000 Guineas first and second, Bow Echo kept his unbeaten record intact after a photo-finish with Gstaad\"Billy<\/p>\n

Billy Loughnane celebrates victory at Royal Ascot(Image: John Walton\/PA Wire)<\/p>\n

Billy Loughnane landed his first Royal Ascot Group 1 win on Tuesday but was not happy with his ride.<\/p>\n

The 20-year-old, tipped for the top since he burst on the scene as a teenager, faced one of the greatest tests of his career to date in the \u00a3700,000 St James\u2019s Palace Stakes.<\/p>\n

The race was billed as a showdown between Loughnane\u2019s mount Bow Echo, trained by George Boughey, and Gstaad, trained by Aidan O\u2019Brien and ridden by Ryan Moore. The pair last clashed in the 2,000 Guineas at Newmarket where Bow Echo was an emphatic winner from Gstaad. However Gstaad bounced back with victory in the Irish 2,000 Guineas next time out at the Curragh.<\/p>\n

Bow Echo went off the 5-6 favourite to confirm superiority over the 2-1 Gstaad whose team had hatched a plan to land the spoils for themselves.<\/p>\n

There was scrimmaging in the early stages before Gstaad\u2019s stablemate Puerto Rico went to the front.<\/p>\n

Still leading turning in, Puerto Rico\u2019s jockey Wayne Lordan was glancing over his shoulder looking for Gstaad and early in the straight he steered off the rail, leaving Ryan Moore with a golden highway to make his challenge.<\/p>\n

Outside of them Loughnane was cruising along on Bow Echo and though he opened a length lead, it was being cut back all the way to the post by Gstaad where Bow Echo had his head down to secure a short head victory.<\/p>\n

Loughnane said: \u201cIt was a very tactical race. To be honest I wouldn\u2019t put it down as one of my finest rides and the horse definitely got me out of trouble today.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was messy. I didn\u2019t want to go to the fence because I didn\u2019t want to make it hard. I wanted to have a smooth run but I had a horrible passage around Charlie and Godolphin\u2019s horse.<\/p>\n

\"Bow<\/p>\n

Bow Echo (right) wins by a short head from Gstaad(Image: Mike Egerton\/PA Wire)<\/p>\n

\u201cThis horse is such a superstar. I am so lucky to be part of a horse like this at the age of 20. I can\u2019t thank George, the connections, I wish the late Sheikh Mohammed Obaid was here to see this as he was the apple of his eye as a two-year-old.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a great day. A Group 1 winner at Royal Ascot<\/a>, it really doesn\u2019t get much better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bow Echo will next take on his elders in the Sussex Stakes at Goodwood, also a likely destination for Gstaad.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Brien said: \u201cIt was a little bit rough early for him. He ended up back a little further than he wants to be. Going to the line he was closing and closing.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Find out more here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the rematch between the 2,000 Guineas first and second, Bow Echo kept his unbeaten record intact after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1030529,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4107],"tags":[161403,288,21031,1071,46788,38664,79,284489,11390,16,15],"class_list":["post-1030528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-racing","tag-ascot-racecourse","tag-horse-racing","tag-horses","tag-racing","tag-royal-ascot","tag-ryan-moore","tag-sports","tag-sussex-stakes","tag-teenagers","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116760755202796784","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1030528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1030528"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1030528\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1030529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1030528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1030528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1030528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}