Constitution River guts it out in merciless renewal of the Coral-Eclipse
The Flat season in Europe is on a most terrific run of action over the last couple of months. Week-in week-out we are being treated to fabulous action across Europe and it really has been a joy to witness. The latest chapter was written at Sandown on Saturday with the Aidan O’Brien-trained CONSTITUTION RIVER striking a blow for the Classic generation when winning the Coral-Eclipse - a contest that warrants close examination.
Before getting into the details, it is important to emphasise that it was run at a brutally strong pace from the outset. All bar one of the runners ran their fastest furlong of the race in the second furlong. Indeed, every runner ran their fastest three furlongs in the race in the second, third and fourth furlongs.
The relative pace distribution in the race was more like what one would expect to see in a Breeders’ Cup Classic on dirt than a middle-distance Group 1 on turf in Europe. The result was that the furlongs got slower and slower as the race progressed, with the winner running the fastest final furlong in 14 seconds, reflecting just how brutal the previous nine furlongs had been. The finishing speed percentage for the winner came in at 95.35% against a par of 101.7%.
In short, the pace of the race served to drag this field into uncomfortably deep water in physiological terms from a long way out. There was no hiding place. While most turned around and floundered back to shore, three three-year-olds proved game to the challenge, showing the talent and bravery to perform whilst so deep in such testing waters.
It was the Aidan O’Brien-trained Constitution River that emerged on top. He wasn’t a horse that was too high up any ante-post lists over the winter, but he had seemed to earn the widespread approval of the public and be unofficially crowned as the people’s champion amongst the three-year-olds following his fiercely-impressive return to action at Chester. His victory in the Prix du Jockey Club had been more so about what he had to overcome in coming from a highly-unfavoured draw to find a way to win rather than scoring style points, but this first venture into open company promised to give him the chance to show the full extent of his prowess.
Fuss about pacemakers if you wish, but they can usually be relied upon to produce an outcome beyond question and that is very much what happened at Sandown. Constitution River was soon dropped into mid-division and his supporters may have become slightly anxious when he soon found himself surrounded by Wathnan Racing-owned contenders.
However, such was the pace put to the race that even if any thoughts of team tactics (heaven forbid!) were in the mind of Jamie Spencer on King’s Gambit, his 109-rated mount was unable to stay on Constitution River’s outer any further than just past the three-furlong pole. This opened up access to the outside for Ryan Moore and such was the amount of horse he was holding onto, Constitution River took him to the lead just inside the two-furlong pole which is a long way from home at the end of such a brutally-run mile-and-a-quarter.
This opened up an opportunity for the two most patiently-ridden runners in the race, the Roger Varian-trained Saddadd and the Donnacha O’Brien-trained A Boy Named Susie. They had benefited from the most efficient rides in the race to that point. Saddadd was unable to capitalise on this and had no more to give from over a furlong out, but A Boy Named Susie breezed through under what was a particularly good ride from Oisin Murphy to briefly threaten Constitution River before flattening out inside the final furlong.
This represented another improvement from A Boy Named Susie who had progressed with each of his eight career runs and now is firmly in Group 1 class. Donnacha O’Brien has mentioned the possibility of the Cox Plate for him and with that race taking place at a horse track rather than a greyhound track this year, that would be a particularly interesting prospect if he is allowed run down there.
Credit must also be given to Hawk Mountain. A Group 1-winning two-year-old, he ran a huge race when second in the Prix du Jockey Club and arguably ran even better here in the circumstances despite being beaten further by the winner. He was much the closest to the brutal pace of all the main protagonists and paid for that in the closing stages. That he fought so bravely to try and hold off the much more patiently ridden A Boy Named Susie is a testament to him. If he can find a path that diverges from that trodden by Constitution River, he is capable of adding to his Group 1 tally.
So, what now for Constitution River? Based on his striding, I suspect he would have no problem staying a mile-and-a-half if he was asked to. However, he has shown in his last two starts that he is very comfortable working within the cauldron of a very high-pressure mile-and-a-quarter test. We already have an older horse leading the mile-and-a-quarter division that has also shown that he thrives in such a scenario in the shape of the John & Thady Gosden-trained Ombudsman. There is only one way to sort this out, isn’t there?
In 1851 York played host to a famous match race between The Flying Dutchman and Voltigeur that drew the attention of the nation. On August 19th 2026 it will host the Juddmonte International and that appeals as being the perfect staging ground for a clash of the generations between Constitution River, Ombudsman and any other horse that wants a piece of the action. With the stakes being so high and given all the tension that has been brewing in the rivalry between the Gosdens and the Ballydoyle team, this clash would have all the promise to be the highlight of the year. Let’s hope we get to see it.
Soumillon appeal verdict brings an end to farcical St James’s Palace postscript
Well, what a mess that was! The St James’s Palace Stakes was one of the most exciting and tactically-fascinating Group 1s of the recent years, but a remarkable intervention by the stewards to find that Christophe Soumillon had broken the team tactics rule and a farcical appeal that followed it may well end up being what the race is most remembered for.
Without rehashing all the details, it was mind blowing to me that the stewards on the day made the ruling that they did. There is no rule that obliges a jockey to race on the inside line in a race. They can and regularly do choose to ride a wider line for any reason they see fit. There is also no rule against a rider looking around in a race. Horses don’t have wing mirrors and it is completely normal to see jockeys looking around and through their legs in a race to increase their awareness of where other riders are positioned.
The sheer volume of assumption and joining of dots that was required for the stewards to make a ruling of team tactics against Christophe Soumillon after the race was a stunning departure from how races are policed in Britain. Anyone can watch a race and give an honestly-held opinion on why jockeys might have made the decisions they did in a race, but for the stewards to pass down such a damning verdict of the rarely-used team tactics rule based on the available evidence was genuinely remarkable to me.
The on-the-ground reality in this part of the world is that there is a wide middle ground within the rules whereby stable mates can act in a manner that seeks to benefit their greater good and attempts to make things more difficult for their opponents, as long as it isn’t too blatant. Whether one agrees with it or not, that is the long-established reality and is endorsed by how rarely the team tactics rule is used.
Did Christophe Soumillon ride in a way that was such an affront to the spirit of the rules that it justified the team tactics rule to be dusted down and applied for the first time in many years? In my opinion, absolutely not. The ruling should not have been made on the day and his appeal should have succeeded in full. The appeal duly did not find Soumillon in breach of the team tactics rule, but did give him a five-day ban for careless riding despite it being him that appeared to be leaned on for much of the race by Power Blue. To me, that is a complete fudge of a ruling to try and save the blushes of the stewards that made a poor ruling on the day and it can be heavily questioned in a wider context of how meekly the interference rules are generally enforced in Britain.
To finish on a different observation, there was also no shortage of irony in it being Soumillon that was the one to have a charge of team tactics levelled against him when riding for Ballydoyle. Soumillon is not a regular part of the Ballydoyle team and is used as a hired gun when needed, as he was for the latter part of last season when Ryan Moore was injured. However, if anyone is under any illusions regarding his competitive mindset and regard for the fortunes of stable mates when he feels he has a chance of winning a race on his own mount, one would do well to watch back last year’s renewal of the Coral-Eclipse
Riding the 14-1 shot Camile Pissarro for Aidan O’Brien with his hugely-important and much shorter-priced stable mate Delacroix on his inside under Ryan Moore early in the straight, did Soumillon make room for Delacroix to allow them both to make their challenge together? Absolutely not! In fact, Soumillon race rode like he would have if it was his biggest danger and fiercest rival on his inside, trapping Ryan Moore in a pocket and even bumping him back into it before making his own bid for glory on the outside. Hence, I very much believe the sincerity of Soumillon’s incredulous reaction to the ban he received at Royal Ascot.
All in all, the whole situation was a farce that served as an unnecessary distraction from what was a fabulous horse race. The only positive to come from it all was the creation of this magnificent video in response to the bizarre evidence given by Soumillon in his appeal regarding the presence of schoolchildren at the home bend when he walked the track earlier in the day.
Non Christophe, je te soutiendrais toujours mais là, désolé j'abandonne pour cette fois-ci. 😂 https://t.co/aiaoFEnSSO pic.twitter.com/dWTWxpUyhg
— Sad Hill (@SadHilllll) June 26, 2026
Never a dull day in the great game!
