William Buick will spend one of the busiest months of the Flat campaign on the sidelines after a 30-day suspension imposed by the stewards at Chantilly on 19 June was confirmed by an appeal panel in Paris on Wednesday. The ban comprises 15 days for causing interference which led to Pierre-Charles Boudot being unseated in the Prix de Diane (French Oaks), and a further 15 days for offensive comments to the panel at Chantilly.
Eclipse day at Sandown Park on Saturday, when he is expected to ride the Royal Ascot winner Hawkbill in the feature race, will be Buick’s final day in the saddle until early August.
He will be forced to miss the July meeting at Newmarket next week, the Irish Oaks, the King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot and all five days of Glorious Goodwood, one of the most valuable meetings of the season.
Buick’s extended absence will mean that James McDonald, Godolphin’s principal jockey in Australia, will extend a stay in Britain that has already seen him claim the Northumberland Plate at Newcastle last weekend.
Buick was riding Highlands Queen, an outsider, for Yohann Gourraud in the Prix de Diane when he was judged to have caused interference to several runners, including Armande, ridden by Bourdot, who stumbled and unseated her jockey about a furlong-and-a-half from the finish. Both Armande and her jockey emerged from the incident unscathed, while Highlands Queen was subsequently demoted from ninth place to last.
“It’s not for us to comment on the ban other than to say that we are very sorry that we will not have William for the next 30 days,” John Ferguson, Godolphin’s chief executive, said on Wednesday.
“But the fact is that we do have James McDonald, who rode Antiquarium to win the Northumberland Plate last Saturday, and he is available for the next 30 days. He’s a world-class rider and it will obviously be the case that one man’s misfortune is another man’s opportunity.”
Buick will hope to sign off before his enforced break with a Group One winner via Hawkbill, the Tercentenary Stakes winner at Royal Ascot, who is top-priced at 7-1 for the Eclipse after being given a supplementary entry on Monday.
The Gurkha, though, seems certain to start favourite when he steps up to 10 furlongs for the first time, two‑and‑a‑half weeks after finishing second behind Galileo Gold in the St James’s Palace Stakes. Aidan O’Brien’s colt is top-priced at 11-10, but was backed to odds-on in places on day afternoon.
Time Test, who missed an intended engagement at the Royal meeting due to unsuitably soft ground, also seems increasingly likely to line up on Saturday after Andrew Cooper, Sandown’s clerk of the course, reported improving conditions at the track on Wednesday.
Roger Charlton’s colt is a 9-2 chance while My Dream Boat, the 16-1 winner of Ascot’s Prince of Wales’s Stakes, is second-favourite on 7-2.
“It doesn’t look like it is going to be as soft as we thought earlier in the week based on where we were and the forecast we have been given,” Cooper said.
“In the short term, we will be on the soft side of good and we will probably be in that sort of territory come Friday. It is certainly not looking like it is going to be soft ground. I suspect it might be on the slow side of good.”
Duramente, seen as Japan’s best chance to record a first victory in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe later in the year, has been retired after injuring his near-foreleg in a race on Sunday. The four-year-old won five of his nine starts including two Grade One events, and finished second in the Dubai Sheema Classic at Meydan in March.
“I felt he still had a way to go before becoming the perfect racehorse, so it really is a great shame that his career has been cut short by an accident like this,” Noriyuki Hori, Duramente’s trainer, said a statement on Wednesday afternoon.
