Aidan O’Brien has moved to reject suggestions that Ballydoyle used team tactics in Tuesday’s St James’s Palace Stakes after Christophe Soumillon was given an eight-day ban by the Royal Ascot stewards.
The disciplinary fallout has become one of the sharpest talking points of the meeting. Soumillon rode Puerto Rico, one of O’Brien’s runners in the Group 1, while Ryan Moore partnered stablemate Gstaad, who was beaten a short head by Bow Echo after finding room up the inside in the straight.
According to Sporting Life’s report on the stewards’ findings, Soumillon was suspended after officials concluded he had ridden Puerto Rico in a way that gave an advantage to another horse from the same stable.
O’Brien Stands By Ballydoyle Pair
O’Brien, whose Royal Ascot record remains one of the defining features of the modern meeting, has denied that the ride formed part of any planned stable strategy.
A Racing Post report carried by TrueNicks detailed O’Brien’s response, with the trainer stressing that his runners are put into races to ensure an even pace and to learn more about where they stand against the best horses.
The incident came at the end of a race that had already been billed as one of the meeting’s strongest three-year-old mile tests, with the St James’s Palace Stakes market centred on Bow Echo, Gstaad and a compact but high-class field.
Moore also received a three-day careless riding ban for the early stages of the race, adding another layer to a messy aftermath for a contest that should have been remembered chiefly for Bow Echo’s narrow success under Billy Loughnane.
For Ballydoyle, the sporting thread now points towards a possible rematch. O’Brien indicated that Gstaad could meet Bow Echo again in the Sussex Stakes at Goodwood, a prospect that follows naturally from the pair’s gripping Ascot finish and the earlier Gstaad rematch discussion around the colt’s campaign.
Royal Ascot has a habit of turning a brilliant finish into a wider argument, and this one is unlikely to disappear quickly. Bow Echo kept his unbeaten record, Gstaad emerged with his reputation intact, but the stewards’ room ensured the St James’s Palace Stakes will be picked over long after the photo-finish has faded. Elsewhere at the meeting, Ombudsman’s Prince of Wales’s Stakes win has set a high form standard, while Trawlerman’s Ascot Gold Cup defence keeps the day-three focus firmly on championship races.
