Peslier takes the long way home with a spare Ryde en route

When Olivier Peslier drove Tayf to success by a nose in the £200,000 Qatar International Stakes for purebred Arabians at Goodwood on Wednesday he was probably expecting to be back in Deauville for dinner.

It was not to be – not by a long chalk. And even in his wildest imaginings he could not have envisaged taking in a detour to the Isle of Wight. A ticket to Ryde indeed.

Peslier, together with trainer Alban de Mieulle and jockey Valentin Seguy, had already taken off from France an hour earlier than intended because it was raining so hard.

The landing strip at Goodwood was very wet when the three arrived, and was far wetter when they attempted to leave.

Peslier said: "We skidded a bit on landing and, with all the rain they got in the afternoon, by the time it was time to return to Deauville there was no way the plane could take off. The pilot wasn’t keen and you have to take their professional advice."

Deciding it was not practical to try to make their way to a bigger airport, they followed the lead of British sailors down the ages and headed to Portsmouth to take a ferry back to France.

It was then that an already arduous journey took a turn for the surreal, with the globetrotting jockey said: "They made us get a taxi from one terminal to another, where we bought a ticket and went where we were directed.

"The boat was under way for only 15 minutes and we landed in Ryde on the Isle of Wight, assuming we had to transfer to another boat. But we were told the boats for Caen left from Portsmouth, where we had just come from.

"The woman told us to hurry up before it left and then they tried to insist we bought another ticket, even though we’d literally just arrived!"

A pleasant sea cruise

Having taken in the delights of the island but briefly, the intrepid – if by now a little bemused – trio recrossed the Solent and hailed another taxi to take them to the international terminal for the ferry to Caen.

There is nothing like a pleasant sea cruise in the summer, but – by now true to form – what Peslier and his companions experienced was anything but.

He said: "We tried to get a cabin, but the boat was packed and there were none left so we had no choice but to take tickets just for the seating area.

"We had all night to kill, so we thought we'd have a leisurely dinner in the semi-gastronomic restaurant. Unfortunately it was closed and we weren’t able to stretch out our meal in the self-service cafeteria. The food was fine – it just didn’t take very long."

Peslier continued: "Valentin was due to be riding all the way down in Vichy the next day and he at least was going to need some sleep but the seated area was absolutely packed.

Having a better time

"We eventually found a space elsewhere to bed down for the night, finally curling up on some fold-down seats. Alban is very tall and for Valentin and me, while it was a bit tight, we could manage on two seats each. He was stretched out over four."

When times are tough, the last thing you want is to run into people you know who are having a better time of it than you.

Peslier, probably anything but surprised, said: "We ran into some people we knew about an hour before we docked who had booked a cabin. They asked how the fold-down seats were."

With a degree of sangfroid appropriate for any Frenchman, he replied coolly: "Just fine, how was your cabin?"

Peslier's peregrinations finally ended where they began, a taxi from Caen disgorging him tired, tried and tested in Deauville, but at least with a winner under his belt.

His next trip to Britain is almost certain to be a far more pleasant affair – but if he is heading to Sandown he would be well advised to double-check his destination does not bear the dread initials I.O.W.