A specialist sprinter, he raced mainly in the North of England winning nine of his sixteen starts and was regarded as the best horse in Europe over sprint distances in 1976.
He then beat Walk By by three lengths in the Finch Decanter Handicap over the same distance at Ascot Racecourse, ridden by Ernie Johnson and carrying a weight of 106 pounds.
When starting favourite for the Ayr Gold Cup in September he finished third, beaten a short head and half a length by Roman Warrior (who carried top weight of 140 pounds) and Import.
Matched against Roman Warrior at level weights he started at odds of 5/1[6] and produced his best performance up to that time taking the lead approaching the final furlong and drawing away to win by two lengths.
He was among the leaders from the start, opened up a clear advantage and held the late challenge of the French-trained filly Realty to win by three-quarters of a length.
In August, Lochnager returned to five furlongs and started the 4/5 favourite for the William Hill Sprint Championship (formerly known as the Nunthorpe Stakes) at York Racecourse.
Having already beaten most of his opponents he was expected to win easily, but after taking the lead a furlong out he had to be driven out by Hide to prevail by half a length from Faliraki with the 100/1 outsider Polly Peachum (also trained by Easterby) a neck away in third.
In their annual Racehorses of 1974, the independent Timeform organisation gave him a rating of 88, forty-six pounds below their top-rated two-year-old Grundy.
The official British handicapper rated him fourteen pounds inferior to Grundy, making him the seventeenth best three-year-old colt of his generation in the United Kingdom.
In their annual Racehorses of 1976 Timeform described him as an outstanding sprinter and bemoaned the fact that he had received few votes in the British Horse of the Year poll won by Pawneese.
[7] Lochnager was retired from racing at the end of the 1976 season with a valuation of £260,000 and became a breeding stallion at the Easthorpe Hall Stud, near Malton, North Yorkshire.