The Irish jockey made weight after a final stint in the sauna

Libertango surged to victory in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint at Keeneland on Friday, with substitute jockey Billy Loughnane delivering a powerful late charge.

In the run-up to the race, Britain's newly crowned champion jockey had accepted he might miss the ride, as the required weight of 8st 7lb sat 3lb below anything he'd managed throughout the season.

However, Loughnane couldn't bear watching another rider take his place. After days of careful weight management and a final session in the sauna, he successfully hit the target on the scales, with trainer George Boughey delighted to retain his stable jockey.

Flavien Prat was the unfortunate rider to lose out, but aside from encountering minor interference on the home turn behind Andrew Balding's Moonrise, the race unfolded perfectly.

Wesley Ward's Ruiva initially looked the horse to beat, before Harper's Corner briefly took command, only for Libertango to overhaul them all. Adrian Keatley's Hell Of A Spin produced an outstanding performance to claim second place.

Loughnane said: "I don't know what to say. I've ridden this filly in every single race and in every piece of work she's ever done and I thought I was going to have to give up the ride on her today.

"I've watched my weight for the last two weeks, obviously condolences to Flavien but I managed to just get enough off in the sauna and I'm sat on the smallest saddle I've ever ridden on. It's good to be able to get the weight off.

"It was awful thinking someone else was going to ride her but big thanks to George and all the team, it was literally 45 minutes before the race it was confirmed.

"She has such a good racing brain, she went to sleep. There was interference on the turn but she didn't even break stride and when I moved her out she hit the wire fantastic.

"I'm riding at 8st 10lb later on so I'd been aiming for that and I'd never been down to 8st 5lb all the time I've been riding, but it's a massive advantage having saunas here, we don't have them in England."

Boughey said: "Credit to Billy I didn't think he would do the weight but the saunas helped and it's the stuff of dreams. All credit to Billy as that was some ride.

"Flavien was meant to ride and it was a very late decision. Billy had ridden her all year and he text me when he got to the track saying he weighed in a lot lighter than he expected. I'd like to apologise to Flavien because he'd been booked a while and it was probably one of his better mounts of the day.

"The race look mapped out for her even from Royal Ascot. That was the plan to come here and for her to train as well as she did through the last few races, it wasn't a huge surprise that she was able to put in a performance like that today.

"The Breeders' Cup for me is as good as it gets. She's been ridden so beautifully by Billy all year. To say he wasn't riding her until 55 minutes before the race, he's just an extraordinary talent."