Christophe Soumillon has insisted he did not engage in tactics designed to benefit a stablemate of his Aidan O'Brien-trained mount at Royal Ascot. The ten-time French champion jockey was banned for eight days for his riding of Puerto Rico, the stable second string to Irish 2,000 Guineas winner Gstaad, in the £700,000 St James's Palace Stakes.
Race details and alleged incident
The race was billed as a rematch between Gstaad and Bow Echo, who had defeated the Ballydoyle challenger in the 2,000 Guineas at Newmarket earlier this year. Puerto Rico, a Group 1-winning two-year-old under Soumillon last year, was the 16-1 outsider who took up the running early in the race. Soumillon took at least two glances behind him, including when entering the straight when Puerto Rico moved to the left, as a result of which a golden highway on his inside along the rail opened for Ryan Moore to make his challenge on Gstaad.
Moore took up the invitation but the staying-on Gstaad could not quite reel in Bow Echo, failing by a short head. Puerto Rico finished last of the six runners. At a stewards inquiry, Soumillon was found guilty of riding Puerto Rico “in such a way that intended to give an advantage to another horse from the same stable, in that he moved his mount away from the rail thereby ensuring a clear run for Gstaad on his inside”.
Appeal hearing evidence
At an appeal hearing on Friday, the panel was shown multiple angles of the race, including drone footage. Louis Weston, representing the BHA, said: “What the video showed is what Mr Soumillon was doing. He intended to open up the space for Gstaad, his stablemate. Mr Soumillon is checking around him to see the position of his stablemate and if I am wrong in saying that that is the purpose of it, the effect of looking around in the way that he did was to see where Gstaad was.
“He would have seen him and he would have seen that Gstaad was not in an advantageous position and his manoeuvre follows the view. He checks to see where Gstaad is. He then either manoeuvres Puerto Rico or fails to check Puerto Rico so that the horse goes wide.”
Soumillon's defence
Soumillon, described by Weston as one of the greatest riders of his generation, gave lengthy evidence defending his actions. He said O'Brien had not told him to ride for the benefit of another of his runners. “I never had any special asking from himself doing anything to help another horse from his stable anytime,” he said.
Soumillon explained that after walking the course, he took the view that the ground was slower close to the far rail. During the race there was a lot of contact between Puerto Rico and Power Blue, who he alleged was being aggressively ridden by David Egan on his outside. The reason he had turned around during the race, he said, was because he had heard Talk Of New York clipping heels, which caused Puerto Rico to over-race.
“Something you always do naturally, you look what is going on behind if you hear clipping heels and also, because he was trying to push me in, I just wanted to make sure there was nothing going wrong on my inside,” he said. On the second occasion he said he had again heard some clipping heels. “Turning your head around means two things,” he said. “You want to make sure there is safety for everyone because Mr Egan was trying to bring me in at that point as well and I didn’t want to go in and I wanted to make sure nobody was trying to come on my inside.”
He added: “I really don’t care at that time where Ryan Moore was and if he was inside or not.” During cross-examination Weston said: “What’s happened here Mr Soumillon is, having checked on Gstaad twice, having seen Gstaad boxed in, you move away from the rail, across Mr Egan’s line, he can’t hold his line, you create space deliberately with the intent of delivering up space for Gstaad. Do you agree with me?” “No I disagree because Mr Moore has other options he can take, he can come out,” Soumillon said.
The hearing was adjourned until Thursday.
