Billy Loughnane had never ridden in a professional race this time four years ago.
Now he is set to be crowned Flat racing’s champion jockey.
And, at just 20, he’s the youngest person to do so in more than a century – which means he hasn’t yet shaken off the nickname “Billy the Kid”.
“It’s been an extraordinary couple of years, really,” said Loughnane.
“I didn’t think it would snowball into what it’s become.”
In January 2023, BBC Sport went to visit Loughnane at his family’s racing yard in Worcestershire.
As a 16-year-old, he was taking the racing world by storm, racking up more than 20 winners in the first few weeks of the year – temporarily putting him top of the flat jockey standings.
He insisted then that people needed to “calm down”.
While being champion apprentice was his goal, becoming the champion jockey was a dream that felt a “long way off”.
Yet, remarkably, here we are.
This Saturday, on Champions Day at Ascot, Loughnane will lift the trophy.
When asked what he would have thought if someone had told him that when he drove up to Newcastle for his first race as an apprentice jockey in October 2022, he said: “I’d have said, ‘that’s absolutely crazy, what have you been drinking?'”
Despite being in a strong position to take the title, Loughnane admitted he felt the pressure “not to let it slip” until a few weeks ago.
But his nearest challenger Oisin Murphy waved the white flag, knowing he couldn’t catch him, and that’s when he started to enjoy it.
The final winning margin is likely to be significant – Loughnane currently leads Murphy by 29 with 222 winners.
Yet he is not stopping there.
The young star wants to break Sir Gordon Richards’ 1947 record on the Flat of 269 winners in a calendar year.
“Yeah, it’s in my sights,” added the Irishman, who is the son of trainer Mark Loughnane.
“I’m just going to take the rest of this month in November and then assess in December if I feel it’s possible, realistically. But it is in my sights, something that I’m looking towards. I’m not blinkers on full blasting at the moment, but I’m just going to keep riding every day as much as possible and assess the situation.”
He could also reach his idol Sir AP McCoy’s record of 289 winners, which was set over jumps as he said: “I’ll be giving it my best shot until the start of December.”
