With Ryan Moore ruled out for the rest of the season by a broken leg and Wayne Lordan facing a ten day suspension, Christophe Soumillon is in line to ride some of Ballydoyle’s stars
Aidan O’Brien will rely on Christophe Soumillon as his go-to big race jockey while Ryan Moore is sidelined with a broken leg.
The trainer announced on Saturday that Moore will be sidelined for the rest of the turf season after being diagnosed with a stress fracture in his femur. The injury could not have come at a worse time for Ballydoyle who face losing stable number two Wayne Lordan for ten days after he was suspended for 10 days after the Goodwood stewards found him to have used his whip in the incorrect place aboard Prestige Stakes winner Precise.
Lordan has lodged an appeal against that ban, which runs from September 9-18, but with the St Leger meeting at Doncaster and the Irish Champions Festival both taking place next week, O’Brien would still be in need of multiple big-race riders as Delacroix is due to run in the Irish Champion Stakes while Scandinavia is a short-priced Leger favourite.
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Asked how plans will change given the news of Moore’s injury, O’Brien said: “Wayne is having his appeal this week and obviously Christophe has ridden a lot for us through the year, all those things are changing at the moment.
“I don’t know how long Ryan is going to be but we will tell him to take as much time as he wants.”
O’Brien has often turned to Soumillon, who was previously retained by the late Aga Khan, for his French runners, with the rider partnering Diego Velazquez to win last month’s Prix Jacques le Marois while he also rode two Group One winners for the team on Arc weekend last year.
The 44-year-old Soumillion was born in Belgium but has been based in France since his teens, where he has been champion jockey ten times.
The trainer added: “Christophe has always been (part of the plans). He’s not tied down to anybody now. He’s a world-class jockey everywhere, he’s been riding for us a lot since he’s been released.”