William Hill names Colm O'Donoghue as Ballydoyle favourite
Colm O’Donoghue has been named as the new head of the market for the available stable jockey job at Ballydoyle, a position left open with the resignation of Johnny Murtagh announced last week.
William Hill has placed O’Donoghue as the 2-1 favourite due to French jockey Christophe Soumillon taking his name out of the running for the Ballydoyle number one spot by taking a job as the first jockey to the Wildenstein stable in France.
“Colm O'Donoghue - now favourite by default following the ruling out of Soumillion - is the likeliest appointment, but it is not beyond the realms of possibility that Ballydoyle instead choose to use the best jockey available, which could lead to a lot of
jostling among the upper ranks,” said Hills spokesman Tony Kenny to Racing Post.
Soumillon, 29-year-old, three-time French champion, was himself named as the favourite for the Ballydoyle job after Pat Smullen announced that he wouldn’t be Aidan O’Brien’s stable jockey.
"Christophe came into my office this morning and signed the contract to be our first jockey,” said Wildenstein's co-owner, Guy Wildenstein. "He told me he will be extremely proud to wear the Wildenstein silks next season. Anthony Crastus will have the second
rides. It is for a duration of two years and Christophe’s first mount for us will be on Planteur in the Hong Kong Cup.”
Soumillon rode 93 winners this year totalling 3.68 million pounds of prize-money. He won two Flat Group 1 races and took his first major Hurdle victory in the French Champion Hurdle while riding Mandali. He also rode a top-level winning horse in each Britain,
Canada and Japan this season, and will return to Japan with Tokyo Tenno Sho winner Buena Vista for the Japan Cup on Sunday.
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