Royal Ascot jockey slapped with ban for giving ‘advantage’ to stablemate

Leading jockey Christophe Soumillon has been hit with a ban for illegitimately advantaging a stablemate horse at Royal Ascot.

Soumillon was riding 16-1 chance Puerto Rico in Tuesday’s St James’s Palace Stakes at the prestigious Berkshire course.

AFP

The Belgian was adjudged to have deliberately veered left coming into the home straight, allowing Gstaad, ridden by Ryan Moore, a clear run at the finish.

Following a stewards’ inquiry, Soumillon was handed an eight-day suspension.

Puerto Rico and Gstaad are both trained by Aidan O’Brien and owned by Ireland’s Coolmore, one of the largest racehorse breeding operations in the world.

Despite Soumillon’s infringement, the race was won by 5-6 favourite Bow Echo, saddled by Billy Loughnane.

Puerto Rico finished last out of the six runners in the St James’s Palace Stakes.

The stewards’ report into the incident involving Soumillon read:

“An enquiry was held to consider whether C Soumillon, the rider of PUERTO RICO (IRE), unplaced, rode in a manner to benefit GSTAAD, placed second, ridden by Ryan Moore, and in doing so caused minimal interference to POWER BLUE (IRE), placed fourth, ridden by David Egan.

“Soumillon, Moore and Egan were interviewed and shown recordings of the incident, and Aidan O’Brien, the trainer of PUERTO RICO (IRE) and GSTAAD, was interviewed via telephone.

“Soumillon was suspended for eight days for riding his mount 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.”

Moore was also given a three-day ban for riding in a ‘careless’ manner at the start of the race.

PA

Tuesday was the first day of Royal Ascot 2026, with the event running until this Saturday (June 20).

As such, Soumillon will not be involved for the remainder of the meeting.

Almost 300,000 people are expected to attend this year’s Royal Ascot, one of the highlights of the British sporting summer.

King Charles and Queen Camilla were in attendance on day one but saw their horse, the Willie Mullins-owned Reaching High, place last in the Ascot Stakes.

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Wednesday’s races include the Prince of Wales’s Stakes, worth a whopping £1 million in prize money.

The meeting concludes with the Queen Alexandra Stakes on Saturday evening.