The Calandagan team are confident Christophe Soumillon is the right super-sub for his Qatar Racing Champion Stakes title defence on Saturday.
With regular rider Mickael Barzalona suspended, trainer Francis-Henri Graffard and owners the Aga Khan Studs, have turned to the vastly-experienced Belgian who has won the Ascot showpiece twice before aboard Cirrus des Aigles in 2011 and Alamzor five years later.
Explaining the move, Nemone Routh, French Racing Manager for the owners, said: “Obviously our first choice would have been Mickael Barzalona but we didn’t have that choice. Mickael was initially looking at appealing the decision and all of that but we realised the ban wasn’t going to get lifted.
“We spoke a lot to Francis and he put some names down to us and we just felt we have a long history with Christophe Soumillon, and while he doesn’t know this particular horse very well, he knows our organisation very well.
“He’s ridden big winners for us in the past at Ascot and we feel he’s a jockey that is a very good big-race jockey. He was in tremendous form over Arc weekend, and we just felt of the jockeys we were considering, it made the most sense to choose him. He knows Ascot very well as well.
“We wanted to stay with a French-based jockey just because the way they’ve been ridden in the past, the races they’re used to, how they’re trained, that was one of the things we wanted to do. We hope it’s going to work out. Obviously it's not ideal in such big races to change your jockey but we didn’t have a choice, so this is the best alternative we came up with."
Connections are confident that the ground is coming up right for their horse who has been freshened up since chasing home Kalpana in the King George at the same track in July.
“I think we have no concerns about the ground. I think Calandagan is probably at his best on good, fast, ground. He handles soft but didn’t handle that testing ground (in the Coronation Cup) and I don’t think he really likes Epsom either. He does handle soft but is probably at his best on good, fast, ground.
“Obviously, Ombudsman likes good, fast ground too but Calandagan on a good surface last year was in front of him and we feel he’s really benefitted from the break after the King George. We felt he was a bit tired that day, take nothing away from Kalpana, but we felt he came to win his race and just didn’t quite finish it out. So, we felt he needed a bit of a break which he’s had and he seems in really good form with himself."
Qatar Racing Champion Stakes - latest betting
Paddy Power & Sky Bet: 9/4 Calandagan, Ombudsman, 4/1 Bay City Roller, 7 Almaqam, 8 Gstaad, 12 Constitution River, Hotazhell, 40 Minnie Hauk, 50 Hawk Mountain, 100 Isaac Newton, 150 Devil's Advocate.
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