France Galop will pursue change to rules following Soumillon elbow incident

French racing's governing body has confirmed it did not want Christophe Soumillon to be part of Arc weekend as the jockey at the centre of an extraordinary controversy insisted he had nothing further to say about the Friday incident that left him with a 60-day suspension.

Soumillon placed himself at the centre of a furore when elbowing fellow jockey Rossa Ryan out of the saddle during a race at Saint-Cloud.

France Galop has pledged to revisit its rules so that bans can in future be activated with immediate effect but the organisation was powerless to stop the ten-time champion jockey riding at Longchamp, where he won the Prix Daniel Wildenstein on Erevann.

Christophe Soumillon moves to elbow Rossa Ryan (left) out of the saddle at Saint-CloudCredit: Sky Sports Racing

After finishing third aboard the Dermot Weld-trained Duke De Sessa on his opening ride, Soumillon – whose punishment kicks in October 14 – was asked about the incident, from which Ryan emerged unscathed.

Soumillon told reporters: "I don't speak any more about this. I said what I have to say."

Such was the severity of Soumillon's actions, the owners of Malavath have revealed they do not want him to partner their filly in Sunday's Group 1 Prix de la Foret, yet the French rules do not permit them to replace a jockey who is permitted to ride.

However, it became apparent on Saturday that France Galop is also unhappy that Soumillon is competing at Longchamp, where on Sunday he partners leading fancy Vadeni in the Qatar Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe (3.05).

Chief executive Olivier Delloye said: "We cannot be happy about what happened yesterday and we are not happy about the bad publicity it has brought to racing but we can only work with the existing rules. We cannot invent new rules overnight, even following a bad situation as the one we saw on Friday. We have to apply the rules as they are and think about how they could be improved.

"We need to see if we can implement within the rules something that enables us to have a ban that begins immediately. That is what we would have liked here but it cannot be done if the rules do not allow it. This was a situation that will most probably lead us to change the rules."

Delloye added: "Looking at what happened yesterday, it looks fair to me that a ban for that sort of offence should start immediately. However, we cannot apply a rule that does not already exist. In future we must improve the racing rules so that we have the flexibility to impose a ban that starts with immediate effect."

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