Christophe Soumillon: Masar cost Nagano Gold victory in the Hardwicke

Christophe Soumillon is convinced that but for Masar the Czech Republic's Nagano Gold would have won the Hardwicke Stakes.

France's perennial champion jockey took the mount on the 25-1 outsider of the field, but as soon as the stalls opened he was set an almost impossible task as Masar stumbled badly and checked him.

From there Soumillon was forced to race several lengths detached off the back of the field in what was a slowly run affair. However, having got his mount back on an even keel and into the race, he was then checked again by Masar as he began to challenge.

"Unfortunately Masar gave us a hard time at the start, hopefully everyone is still on their horse. He cost me the race anyway," said a disappointed Soumillon.

Explaining the incident he added: "The problem was as he jumped out of the gate he crossed me, and then in the straight also he pushed me wide."

Nagano Gold (right): narrowly denied after an incident-packed raceCredit: Edward Whitaker

Tomas Janda, racing manager to Nagano Gold's owner/trainer Vaclav Luka jnr – who trains roughly 100km from Prague but was not present – spoke of the mixture of joy and frustration the team felt after the five-year-old ran such a brave race.

"We are happy, but it was quite close and Christophe said he lost quite a lot at the start. Masar crossed him and he lost a lot there, and also in the straight, so he feels he could even have won. We are happy, but if you are so close you always think what could be."

Explaining how the plan to travel the son of Sixties Icon came about, Jadna added: "He won a Listed race in France last year very easily and ran in Group 2 races, but it was always very, very slow. He was placed fourth, but only beaten three lengths, and over the winter we decided to come here.

"We run a lot of our horses in France every week, but for this horse England – or maybe Germany – is better because he needs a fast pace."

That said, the Nagano Gold team are building the rest of his campaign around one race in France. There will be one start, in either Britain or – more likely at this stage – Germany, before a trip to the Arc.

"We've entered him for a Group 1 in Germany in August, so probably not the King George but of course we could change it, but the long-term plan for this season is the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe in October. We don't want many races for him so I think we will run just once more before the Arc and we hope it's not too slow."

Read The Briefing from 8.30am daily on racingpost.com and the Racing Post mobile app with all the day's latest going, weather, market moves and non-runner news