Christophe Soumillon gives up final two rides after nasty stalls incident
PICTURE: Getty ImagesSoumillon suffers minor injuries in stalls incident
France: Christophe Soumillon escaped serious injury when Be Perfect reared up in the stalls beforeday's feature race at Maisons-Laffitte.
The Listed Prix de Suresnes was delayed for ten minutes after the Jean-Claude Rouget-trained runner then burrowed under the front of the stalls before escaping down the length of the straight.
Soumillon returned to the weighing room in an ambulance and was reported to have suffered superficial injuries to his knee and foot.
Examinations revealed that Soumillon had suffered nobreakages, although the reigning champion jockey elected to give up his two remaining rides on the card.
"It's nothing serious, he just got a bang on the knee," confirmed Soumillon's agent Pierre-Alain Chereau. "He'll be back for the next meeting at Longchamp on Thursday."
The incidents surrounding the race did not stop there as a ginger cat sprinted out in front of the leaders as Mustaheel and Sir Jade settled down to fight out the finish.
Fortunately neither horse was impeded and Mustaheel went on topreserve his 100 per cent record with a three-quarters of a length defeat of Sir Jade under Francois-Xavier Bertras.
The son of Lawman was a second winner of a recognised Classic trial in as many days for for trainer Francois Rohaut, who sent out Hard Dream to land the Prix Noailles at Longchamp on Monday.
Vision D'Etat took this race over 1m1f en route to victory in the Prix du Jockey Club, but Mustaheel appears unlikely to follow the same path.
"He's more of a miler physically, and I might bring him back in distance a little," Rohaut told Paris Turf. "I'm not certain of where we'll go next, but Mustaheel won't run in the Jockey Club."
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