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British Champions Crowned at Ascot: Godolphin Takes 18th Owners’ Title, Loughnane Youngest Champion Jockey in a Century

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The British Flat season closed at Ascot on British Champions Day with a familiar name on top and a new one etched into the record books. Godolphin was crowned champion owner for the 18th time after another powerful campaign that banked more than £6.5 million in prize money, while 20-year-old Billy Loughnane claimed his first Champion Jockey title in a style not seen for more than a century.

Loughnane finished the championship with 159 wins, more than 20 clear of runner-up Oisin Murphy, and becomes the youngest champion jockey since 19-year-old Charlie Elliott shared the honor back in 1923. Having conquered the title at 20, he has already set his sights on a taller mountain: Sir Gordon Richards’ calendar-year record of 269 victories.

A Boughey Double, and a Family Repeat

The apprentice ranks produced a storybook result of their own. Jack Callan took Champion Apprentice honors with 54 wins, matching the achievement of his father, Neil Callan, who won the same title in 1999. The younger Callan’s rise has been rapid by any measure; he only began race riding in March of last year while juggling A-level studies. Remarkably, both champions are attached to the same yard, trainer George Boughey’s Newmarket stable, giving Boughey a rare double on the season’s closing day.

Godolphin’s championship was built on star power at the top level. Ombudsman led the charge, winning the Champion Stakes on Champions Day itself along with the Prince of Wales’s Stakes, where he became the first back-to-back winner of that race in 30 years. Seven-time Group 1 winner Notable Speech, who dominated the Lockinge, added further weight to the blue silks’ season.

“The entire team at Godolphin is delighted to win the UK Owners’ Championship, this year for the 18th time,” said Hugh Anderson, Godolphin’s Managing Director for the UK and Dubai. With a teenage apprentice champion, a 20-year-old jockey champion and the sport’s most powerful ownership operation all celebrating on the same afternoon, Champions Day delivered a fitting handover between British racing’s present and its future.

Photo: Billy Loughnane, the 2026 British champion jockey, with his trophy at Ascot. Credit: Megan Rose Photography.

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Fasig-Tipton Kentucky October Sale Wraps With $65.9 Million in Trade, Not This Time Colt Tops Final Day at $500,000

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October 29, 2026

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The North American yearling sale season went out on a strong note in Lexington. The four-day Fasig-Tipton Kentucky October Yearlings Sale, held October 19-22 at the Newtown Paddocks, turned over 1,096 yearlings for $65,920,000, producing an average of $60,146 and a median of $30,000 that held steady against last year’s record-setting renewal. With an RNA rate of 18.6 percent, buyers and sellers alike found a deep, workable market from the first hip to the last.

Thursday’s final session found its headline late, when Hip 1455, a colt by Not This Time, sold for $500,000 to West Coast Racing. Consigned by Taylor Made Sales Agency as agent for Summer Wind Equine, the Kentucky-bred colt is the first foal out of the Uncle Mo mare Mozay and comes from a family stacked with top-level performers, including Grade and Group 1 winners Sandman, Music Note, Mystic Guide and Musical Chimes.

Fillies and Colts Round Out a Deep Final Day

The session’s top filly was not far behind the colt. Hip 1541, a daughter of Into Mischief out of graded stakes winner Painting, brought $485,000 from Good Horse for Morplay Racing and was consigned by Hill ‘n’ Dale at Xalapa. Third on the day was Hip 1498, an Authentic colt out of Nora’s Joy who sold for $400,000 to Gold Square LLC from the Woods Edge Farm consignment, with trainer Chad Summers signing the ticket.

As strong as the finale was, the sale’s biggest fireworks came earlier in the week. Tuesday’s session produced the two overall toppers, an Uncle Mo filly and an Into Mischief colt who each changed hands for $800,000, setting the tone for four days of competitive bidding.

“It was a near record breaking sale for the 2026 Kentucky October Yearlings sale,” said Fasig-Tipton President Boyd Browning. With gross receipts north of $65 million and a median that refused to budge from last year’s record pace, the October sale once again proved its reputation as the dependable final stop of the yearling season, and a reliable barometer for the bloodstock market heading into 2027.

Photo: Yearlings on show at the 2026 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky October Sale at Newtown Paddocks in Lexington. Credit: Fasig-Tipton.

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