It emerged during the ten-time champion’s appeal hearing that he should have received a longer suspension than the eight days imposed12:01, 02 Jul 2026Royal Ascot stewards issued the ‘wrong’ penalty to Christophe Soumillon for his ride on Puerto Rico in the St James’s Palace Stakes.‌The ten-time French champion jockey was banned for eight days for his riding of the Aidan O’Brien runner who was stable second string to Irish 2,000 Guineas winner Gstaad in the £700,000 Group 1 feature‌During the race Soumillon looked behind twice, notably when entering the straight where Puerto Rico moved to the left, in the process leaving a golden highway on his inside along the rail through which Ryan Moore was able to make his challenge on Gstaad.‌Moore took up the invitation but the staying-on Gstaad could not quite reel in Bow Echo, failing by a short head. Puerto Rico finished last of the six runners.At the subsequent inquiry Soumillon was found guilty of riding Puerto Rico “in such a way that intended to give an advantage to another horse from the same stable, in that he moved his mount away from the rail thereby ensuring a clear run for Gstaad on his inside”.However it emerged during closing arguments of the Belgian’s appeal against the verdict that the raceday stewards should have imposed a longer suspension.‌Disciplinary panel chair HH Clement Goldstone KC said: “They took the wrong bracket for penalties.”Barrister Louis Weston, representing the BHA, replied: “They certainly reached the wrong decision on penalty.”‌Goldstone said: “The range for the breach which you say they found was seven to 21 days.”Weston said: "They’ve gone right to the bottom of it, and they shouldn’t have done. They should have started at the starting point which was 14.”Soumillon has denied he rode to the advantage of Gstaad and said he had decided before the race to stay away from the inside rail because he believed the ground was slower there and he wanted to avoid a point inside the track where he had seen a group of noisy children earlier in the day.‌Content cannot be displayed without consentHe also said Puerto Rico was known to hang to his left and that he had looked behind after hearing a horse clipping heels twice.In his final submission, Weston said Soumillon had not given the ground as the reason for his manoeuvre to the stewards at the inquiry.‌He said: "If you are a rider of the skill of Mr Soumillon you wouldn’t want to get into a conflict with another horse. You would follow the rail because it’s straight line up the inside.“He doesn’t do any of that. He does the opposite. He gets into trouble with Power Blue. He rides into trouble and he opens the door to allow another horse through.”‌Soumillon’s solicitor Rory Mac Neice said there was always room along the rail for a horse to go through and that TurfTrax data backed up the view that the ground was quicker away from the rail.“The BHA does not allege any pre-planning, no allegation that Mr Soumillon was instructed to ride for another Coolmore horse by any person, so on the BHA’s case this was something that Mr Soumillon decided all by himself," he said.“That would require Mr Soumillon to have acted completely out of character. It is inherently implausible that someone of Mr Soumillon’s competitive nature would unilaterally and on his own account, decide in a race to ride for another horse.”Article continues belowThe hearing was adjourned with the verdict expected on Thursday.