By Will Lefebve

Wonderkid Billy Loughnane, still only 18 years old, but staking his claim to be the next Lester Piggott, shone like a Brighton beacon again as he thrilled the seaside crowd yesterday at the Freshfield Road venue’s 22nd and final fixture of 2024.

Sitting fourth in the Flat jockeys’ championship battle which ends at Ascot tomorrow, the Irish-raised teenager from the Midlands, now based in Newmarket - where he is stable jockey to George Boughey - underlined his star quality on Mini Mac in a driving finish to the restricted novice stakes at 2.05, edging out Hayley Turner on runner-up Pickering Castle by a neck.

It was one of five mounts on the card for the “kid”, who is lying fourth in the title table, and he told me:- “I need four more winners by close of play at Ascot to get my hundred up in the championship listings, and it would mean a great deal to me to reach a century.”

In fact, Billy has rattled off 139 winners so far in the current calendar year, having accumulated 130 in 2023.

Loughnane looked set to make it a quickfire double on the card in the following Docker Hughes Memorial race, but riding favourite Far From Dandy, he was run out of first place close home by Brighton’s Jason Watson on Great David, and denied by half a length, with third-placed Northwest Passage breathing down their necks at the finishing post.

It was “business as normal” for Brighton’s top trainer Tony Carroll in the opening extended five furlongs sprint as his five-year-old My Genghis demonstrated how fast he “khan” run to obliterate four opponents in the hands of stable apprentice Jack Doughty.

Following a frustrating September, the man from Pershore plum country is finally “blossoming“ again, and made it 84 Flat winners for 2024 as he chases that so far elusive maiden century.

A beaming Tony, who has become a standing dish at the Sussex venue over the past decade, explained: “A lot of our horses absolutely love this track, and all my owners really enjoy coming down here.”

You can’t keep the ubiquitous Moores of Horsham out of the limelight for long, and following their Goodwood double four days earlier when one of the winners was sent off at 66-1 - [you couldn’t make this up] - presenter Hayley’s partner Tom Queally secured ANOTHER 66-1 success in the 3.50 race on Cresta Cat in a driving finish with Chourmo.

A delighted Gary quipped: “Sunday was a surprise. This wasn’t. The key to this horse is soft ground, and this race came at the ideal time”.