Jockey Profile

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From Cortown, County Meath, Roger Loughran has enjoyed a lengthy career and gained his fair share of success along the way. He rode 41 winners as an amateur, principally for the late Dessie Hughes. Shortly after turning professional in December of 2005, Roger suffered a major set back when riding Central House for Hughes in the Grade 1 Dial-A-Bet Chase at the Leopardstown Christmas meeting. With the race at his mercy, he misjudged the winning post and eased the eight-year-old with 50 yards to race. He was beaten into third place and was suspended for 14 days. It was front-page news at the time but of the incident, Loughran was later to say, "Dessie was unbelievable. He put his arm around me in the parade ring, told me everything would be alright and walked me into the weighroom. I swear he never said a word about it to me again. Central House’s owners were brilliant as well. Sadly, John Kenny has passed away since but both he and Joe Doyle couldn’t have been nicer about the whole thing."

Loughran quickly recovered and partnered Central House to win the Tied Cottage Chase at Punchestown five weeks later. Roger's biggest win came on the Christy Roche-trained Far From Trouble in the Galway Plate in 2006. He was twice a Grade 1 winner on Schindlers Hunt, trained by Dessie Hughes and also enjoyed notable success with the likes of Grangeclare Lark, Giolla An Bhaird, First Row, Nearly Nama'd, Black Apalachi, Kyrie Eleison, Acapella Bourgeois and Peregrine Run. In all Roger had ridden over 200 winners when he announced his retirement from the saddle in February, 2019.