Christophe Soumillon steps into the Ballydoyle hot seat in Paris on Sunday as top filly Whirl heads Aidan O’Brien’s substantial raid on Longchamp’s Arc-Trials card.
Having used to clash with Day Two of the Irish Champions Festival, France Galop’s decision to bring the prestigious Group One programme forward a week ensures this weekend’s spotlight is on the Bois de Boulogne.
Individually it will firmly be on Soumillon, the mercurial 44-year-old jockey chosen by O’Brien to fill in for Coolmore’s injured number one Ryan Moore. His broken leg has turned into a rare opportunity for one of the great riders in modern French racing history.
Since he truly did burst on the scene with Anabaa Blue’s 2001 French Derby victory, the reed-thin Belgian has proved a consistently mesmerising and successful figure.
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Ten times champion in France, he has combined brilliance with controversy, whether fuming with British whip rules, getting hired, fired and rehired by the late Aga Khan, or even responding to critics by pointing to his posterior passing the winning post à la the 2006 King George on Hurricane Run.
More seriously and recently he has also overcome a two-month ban for elbowing Rossa Ryan out of the saddle at Saint Cloud in 2022, re-establishing his credentials at the top of the global pecking order.
It’s more than two decades since Soumillon rode for O’Brien in the Epsom Derby. Having won the 2007 Ganay on Dylan Thomas, he has consistently been an option for the Ballydoyle team in France. For the coming months he shapes as being the likely main man for them everywhere.
If those two decades have taught us anything it is that the man famously married to a former Miss France will not want for confidence. In terms of self-assurance, the Belgian has been described as more French than the French. But his record is hard to argue with.
Over the years there has been criticism mixed with praise in Ireland. He has admitted that Dalakhani shouldn’t have been beaten by Alamshar in the 2003 Irish Derby. He also copped flak in the Champion Stakes at Leopardstown on Azamaour and Vadeni. But he won it brilliantly on Almanzor. His record elsewhere, particularly in Japan and Hong Kong, is superb.
What has persisted despite every reversal is recognition that Soumillon at his best can make the difference between winning and losing. So, at the start of a bumper two-month autumn season of hugely prestigious races it makes him the man for Coolmore to turn to.
It is also a massive moment for him. To fit in with next weekend’s Champions Festival he has already ruled himself out of a ride in Doncaster’s St Leger. On Sunday he has got off the French Oaks winner Grezora to team up with Whirl in the €600,000 Qatar Prix Vermeille, off at 3.25pm Irish-time. It’s not hard to see why.
On Sunday alone he also rides the French Guineas hero Henri Matisse in the €800,000 Prix Du Moulin (2.50) over a mile. Then there is the Irish Derby winner Los Angeles in the Prix Foy (1.33) and Swagman who returns to action in the Prix Niel (4.00).
In the past Soumillon has proved peerless around Longchamp and his teaming up with Whirl could predict next month’s Arc itself. Her opposition includes Bedtime Story (Wayne Lordan) but also last year’s Arc runner-up Aventure. Bluestocking managed the Vermeille-Arc double in 2024.
Henri Matisse is joined by The Lion In Winter (Lordan) and Serengeti (Dylan Browne McMonagle) in the Moulin where the main Irish pair have priceless low draws in the mile contest. The top English miler Rosallion hasn’t been as lucky and will break from stall 11 of 12 runners.
McMonagle is in Paris principally to ride the Derby third Tennessee Stud in the Niel for his boss Joseph O’Brien. Swagman is an intriguing Ballydoyle option in the mile-and-half contest, having been out of action since scoring in Sandown’s Classic Trial in April.
In other news, the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board has confirmed that the handicapping appeal involving the JP McManus owned former Cheltenham Champion Bumper winner A Dream To Share has been allowed.
A handicapping appeals body met on Thursday to consider the appeal of trainers John and Thomas Kiely.
After three runs on the flat, A Dream To Share was popular in betting for next month’s English Cesarewitch only for the Irish handicapper not to award him a mark. This was reciprocated by the English handicapper who ruled him ineligible.
Separate appeals were made to the IHRB and the British Horseracing Authority to handicap the horse but connections ran out of time in terms of the Cesarewitch.
On Friday, an IHRB statement said: “Having considered the submissions and observations made by the appellants and the handicapper in this appeal, the Appeals Body has decided to allow the appeal of the appellants and remit the matter to the handicapper with a direction that he should allocate a handicap mark to the horse.”
The Appeals Body will provide its reasons for this decision in writing not later than next Friday.
