Over the years, Christophe Soumillon has become used to being called arrogant. To which his response can smack of that old gag about pretension — arrogant, moi?
The most famous jockey in France exudes an almost stereotypical Gallic hubris. Assurance in the saddle is matched out of it by iron-clad self-confidence. Few perceived slights are let slide without a prickly response. Soumillon brings to mind the old Irish joke about anyone from Cork with an inferiority complex being someone who believes they are just as good as anybody else.
If that cockiness is bewildering to the rest of this country, the twist to the “Soumi” story is that most French of figures is actually from Belgium.
Since the French affect a particular air of superiority over their neighbours to the north, amateur shrinks might enjoy analysing how someone who grew up in the suburbs of Brussels can appear the epitome of la difference.
To which the man himself might respond with a Gaullist “pfff”.
The thing is, it’s hard to argue that Soumillon isn’t entitled to what he insists is self-belief rather than arrogance.
On 10 occasions he has got the Cravache d’Or (golden whip) as France’s champion jockey. He is acclaimed globally as one of the world’s leading big-race riders. His services are retained by the Aga Khan. He’s married to a former Miss France with whom he has beautiful children.
Extravagantly talented, wealthy, and apparently as fortunate as he is successful, only the most stoic might argue Soumillon isn’t entitled to at least a little hubris.
Those who know him acknowledge the image but say the portrayal isn’t a full picture of the 41-year-old prince of the Paris turf who will be centre stage at Leopardstown on Saturday when riding the favourite Vadeni in the Royal Bahrain Irish Champion Stakes.
“He’s from Belgium but he’s very French and you could sometimes pick him up as being a bit of an arrogant a***hole, you know that kind of way. But he’s not like that, really,” is the verdict of former rival Johnny Murtagh.
The former Irish champion jockey memorably got the better of a young Soumillon in the 2003 Irish Derby when riding Alamshar to beat another Aga Khan owned star, Dalakhani.
“He’s one of the top jockeys I’d have ridden against. He is very confident and he’s got a ruthless streak. He’s very natural on a horse, a good horseman, strong left, strong right: he’s got that bit about him, and a bit more maybe. But you need that.
“I met him there out in Dubai with his family and he was a totally different guy, much more relaxed, more chilled on his bit of downtime. I know him well, always comes over to chat, he knows what’s going on. Like all the top jockeys, he is very competitive and you could pick him up as arrogant, But he’s just confident in his own ability,” Murtagh added.
The man himself, a Group One winner in 10 countries worldwide, puts the popular image down to simply being straightforward.
“That’s a part of me that probably looks like arrogance but it’s a self-confidence. When you feel good, your horse is good, and you’re the favourite in a race, why should you feel that you can be beat? I’m my own character so when I’m not happy some people might say I’m arrogant or not well behaved. But when something goes wrong, I say it. You can’t make everybody happy,” he said recently.
He wins around the world. He’s been very successful in Hong Kong, won the Japan Cup. He’s a top man worldwide, not just in France
— Johnny Murtagh
Just as there’s no disputing that there is also no arguing with Soumillon’s gift for making horses run fast.
The son of a jump jockey, he was a champion pony race rider in his homeland at just nine. At 15, and dreaming of becoming the next Frankie Dettori, he left Belgium to become an apprentice in France.
Within five years he’d won a first classic on Anabaa Blue in the French Derby. A year later he was retained by the Aga Khan. In 2003 he won the Arc for the first time on Dalakhani.
“He makes a difference,” Murtagh said. “He wins around the world. He’s been very successful in Hong Kong, won the Japan Cup. He’s a top man worldwide, not just in France.”
At times, however, it isn’t hard to see why he might be perceived as recognising that better than anyone else.
As Dalakhani approached the winning line in the 2003 French Derby his young rider started gesturing to his rivals to make it more of a race. A few years later, after passing the post first in the King George he appeared to point to his posterior as crude advice for what some critics could do.
Age hasn’t diluted his taste for celebration either. After Vadeni crossed the line in the Eclipse at Sandown in July, Soumillon’s joy saw him allow the colt to veer across two rivals on his inside. That got him a 12-day ban.
To the surprise of few, the jockey opted to defend himself at a subsequent appeal, admitted wrongdoing but argued vehemently that the 12 days was too much. The outcome was four days taken off the suspension.
That indomitable quality has characterised much of Soumillon’s career.
He wasn’t the first young jockey to fall out of favour with the Napoleon of French racing, Andre Fabre. But losing the Aga Khan job in 2010 was a blow that could have stymied many others. Ultimately though, the link was re-established in 2013.
“What I’ve learned over the years is that every time you reach the summit, you go down afterwards,” he has said.
Soumillon’s nerve was at its finest in delivering Alamanzor to a dramatic victory over a quality field
His fortunes have fluctuated in Ireland over those years. He has admitted to regrets about Dalakhani’s Irish Derby defeat although Curragh classic success subsequently came with Shawanda in the 2005 Oaks.
Later that year a relatively uninspired effort in the Irish Champion Stakes on Azamour left hometown critics quibbling about it being all very well dominating at Chantilly or Longchamp but Leopardstown on a big day is a different ball game.
Revenge came however in 2016 in perhaps the deepest ever Irish Champion Stakes. Soumillon’s nerve was at its finest in delivering Alamanzor to a dramatic victory over a quality field. Now, he and trainer Jean-Claude Rouget are back with a colt that might even be Almanzor’s superior.
“For sure he is a really special horse — at the top of my list with Dalakhani and Zarkava,” he said after the Eclipse.
Comparisons with Zarkava in particular indicate the regard Vadeni is held in as that filly ended her unbeaten career with Arc glory in 2008.
If she looked like a star from the start, Vadeni has been a relative slow-burner, getting beaten on his first start of the year and hardly setting the world alight until a devastating classic victory in the Prix Du Jockey Club in June.
A subsequent defeat of older horses, including the unlucky Mishriff, in the Eclipse has been a rare boost to the classic generation’s reputation this season. Now the pressure is on to repeat the feat around Leopardstown which can be a trappy track.
“He’s won the Champion Stakes previously. He won’t have any problems. Vadeni certainly won’t lack from the saddle I can assure you,” said Dermot Weld.
The Curragh trainer’s Tarnawa, also owned by the Aga Khan, was guided by Soumillon to Prix Vermeille and Prix de l’Opera glory in 2020 before coming within an ace of Arc glory on the mare last October.
“We very nearly won the Arc together, got within half a length. We were just unlucky due to the exceptionally heavy ground. We didn’t have the ideal draw. But I thought Soumillon gave her a very good ride. He is a world-class rider,” is Weld’s verdict.
Murtagh too can detect real confidence in Vadeni and said: " He’ll be coming over confident. I know by the way he’s talking about the horse. He’s made for Leopardstown, that horse. He’s got a good cruising gear and a turn of foot.”
A superb judge of pace from any position in a race, it is the classic French late-pounce style that Soumillon particularly enjoys.
It makes him master of the Paris tracks where the cliche goes that every race is little more than a dawdle in the early stages before a frantic late dash to the line.
Like most cliches, it isn’t necessarily untrue. But neither do cliches represent the full picture, something Vadeni’s jockey might appreciate more than most.
