Christophe Soumillon at centre of storm amid calls to stand down on Arc day

Christophe Soumillon declined to offer further comment here on Saturday on the extraordinary incident on Friday in which he elbowed his fellow rider, Rossa Ryan, from the saddle during a race at nearby Saint-Cloud. Controversy over Soumillon’s continued presence at Longchamp this weekend is unlikely to subside, however, before his ride on Vadeni, the French Derby winner, in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe on Sunday.

“I don’t speak any more about this, I said what I have to say,” Soumillon said after finishing third on the first of his five rides on Saturday’s card, having ignored calls – including one from a co-owner of Malavath, a horse he is due to ride here on Sunday – to stand down from his engagements over the most prestigious weekend of the European season.

Soumillon picked up a 60-day ban for Friday’s incident, from which Ryan emerged unscathed, but his suspension does not begin for a fortnight and it also emerged here on Saturday that France Galop, the sport’s ruling body, may change its rules to ensure that an immediate suspension is an option in future.

“From what we saw yesterday, we would like to be in a position to impose a ban which starts immediately in those circumstances,” Olivier Delloye, France Galop’s chief executive, told reporters. “It is very hard for people to understand after such an incident that the jockey can keep riding for 14 days.”

Friday’s incident slightly overshadowed the run-in to Sunday’s Arc, for which runners trained in five different countries – Ireland, Britain, France, Germany and Japan – filled the first five places in the betting after Thursday’s draw for stall positions.

The cosmopolitan field for the 101st running of European racing’s showpiece event is also one of the most