Reigning champion jockey Pierre-Charles Boudot has been suspended from riding for three months by France Galop as a result of being charged with rape.
The three-time winner of France's cravache d'or was stood down along with fellow jockey Pierre Bazire, who has been charged with failing to report a crime over the same incident, after both appeared before France Galop stewards on Friday.
France Galop said that while both jockeys are presumed innocent the stewards had issued a precautionary suspension because of the “seriousness of the allegations against them” and “the damage to the image of racing.” The measures can be lifted or renewed if further information is brought to the stewards' attention.
Boudot, 28, was released on €50,000 [$60,710] bail on Wednesday after spending two days in police custody, having been charged with the rape of a 25-year-old female work rider. This followed an investigation into a complaint made following a party in Cagnes-Sur-Mer on France's Cote d'Azur in February.
The lawyer representing the woman said it was highly likely his client, who works for a racing stable in Chantilly, was drugged before she was raped, making her unable to give consent. Boudot denies the charges.
The charges were announced by the state prosecutor in Senlis in the department of Oise, which also comprises France's main racing centre in Chantilly.
Boudot and Bazire were also identified as persons of interest in a case of witness intimidation. Both were placed under judicial control with Boudot barred from entering the Oise department.
Boudot is also being investigated over another rape complaint from 2015 in which the victim also alleged she was drugged. He denies the allegations.
Boudot, champion jockey in 2015, 2016 and 2020, has become one of the world's top riders. He won the 2019 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe on Waldgeist, has ridden the winners of four French Classics and rode two winners at last year's Breeders' Cup.
In France this year he has already ridden 105 winners, double the number of the next rider in the jockeys championship.
This story was reprinted with permission by Horse Racing Planet. Find the original piece and more content here.
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