Soumillon banned 60 days for elbowing jockey off horse but keeps Arc ride

Christophe Soumillon, one of the sport’s most successful and high-profile jockeys, was banned for 60 days on Friday after an extraordinary incident at Saint-Cloud in Paris in which he elbowed his fellow rider, Rossa Ryan, from the saddle in the middle of a race.

Ryan was riding Ralph Beckett’s Captain Wierzba in a juvenile contest over a mile when Soumillon moved his mount, Syros, to his right, with his elbow making contact with Ryan as he did so.

Ryan turned three somersaults after hitting the turf but walked away from the incident unscathed. Syros went on to cross the line in second place, before being disqualified by the stewards a few minutes later.

“I felt a little bit of pressure from Rossa on my outside while trying to keep a better position behind Ryan [Moore, on eventual winner Continuous],” Soumillon told Sky Sports Racing afterwards.

“I was just behind Ryan at the time and I put my elbow against him just to make him understand I wasn’t going to the inside. Unfortunately, when I asked my horse to stay there and go a little bit to the right I have pushed him for a stride or two and he fell off.

“Straight away I knew I made a mistake and I’m terribly sad about what happened because I hate to see stuff like this. When you are doing that, it is even more terrible, so I really want to apologise to everyone, all involved with the horse.

“I have just seen the jockey and he is fine and I’m happy about that, and the horse too. As for all the people who love racing, it was not a nice act from my side and I’m terribly sorry and want to apologise for what happened today.”

“Wow - Soumillon put an elbow out there” - @LynchySSR is shocked by events in the Prix Thomas Byron… pic.twitter.com/gpGeOyqTtw

Despite the severity of