A PROVERBIAL bomb landed last Friday in the continued debate on the policing of interference and how to punish jockeys causing interference in a race.

In France last Friday, in what may have been a moment of casual carelessness, Christophe Soumillon used his elbow to attempt to make another rider move out and give him room to challenge.

Rossa Ryan on his horse moved suddenly to avoid the contact and abruptly came off his horse, taking a very heavy fall, from which he was lucky not to be injured. The consequence for Soumillon was a two-month ban.

But many called for even stronger punishment, up to six months or some dramatically saying he should be banned for life. Was it not likely to risk serious injury to a fellow rider?

On ITV Racing on the Saturday, Ruby Walsh seemed to disagree, saying it was a racing manoeuvre that went wrong, showing a replay of Soumillon more gently leaning to move Jim Crowley’s mount to his right when looking for room to challenge on Perfect Power in the Commonwealth Cup at Royal Ascot.

To me, the two-month ban, in the context of what occurred, was sufficient and Soumillon has had consequences, suffering the loss of the Aga Khan’s retainer.

It’s always useful to compare punishments for dangerous manoeuvres in other sports.

Compare it to a dangerous tackle that caused injury, that became career-ending in soccer, pushing someone off the track in Formula 1 into the barriers, not knowing how bad a crash might ensue? We don’t punish those in the context of the worst-case scenario, that it might be a career-ending tackle or a driver badly injured in going into the barriers. Should we not just punish what actually occurred?

Someone cited Stefanos Tsitsipas being fined $10,000 for hitting a ball directly into the crowd at Wimbledon. It was extremely lucky that he did not hit anyone, but he was fined for the deed, for what actually happened.

Bad error

Did Soumillon mean to push Ryan off his horse? Or just make a bad error in over-

aggressive race-riding?

To stretch the point, we also don’t give a murder level of sentence for someone on trial for attempted murder.

There were similarities at the weekend in the US when jockey Sonny Leon appeared to lean significantly into his rival Tyler Gafflione when engaged in a tight battle in the final furlong at Churchill Downs. Despite claiming that it was due to a saddle slipping, Leon was banned for 15 days.

Similar incident

Perhaps the most comparable incident occurred in the summer of 2020 in Australia, where generally punishments are more severe. Top jockey Hugh Bowman was given a six-week ban for an accident at Rosehill which did have a tragic result, in the death of a horse and severe injuries to a rider.

Andrew Adkins required surgery after breaking his leg and collarbone and fracturing seven rib in the fall when Bowman pulled out and cut him off.

Bowman’s statement in his defence after he was found guilty of careless riding, might also mirror Soumillon’s: “I’ve ridden in a lot of races, I would consider myself a careful rider and this was by no means a rushed or spur of the moment decision.

“It was a calculated one which unfortunately resulted in devastating circumstances but that said, I have to disagree with the stewards’ finding.”

However, it’s hard to look at that incident and not think the move was bound to cause a good deal of interference.

Was the intention to push Rossa Ryan off the horse? It’s hard to assume it was deliberately meant to have that severe a consequence, and therefore to issue a longer ban probably serves no further purpose.