Kieran Shoemark able to ride Luther in French Derby despite ban as Charlie Fellowes seeks change of fortune
SUSPENDED Kieran Shoemark will play his 'joker' in order to ride Charlie Fellowes' ace in the French Derby.
The jockey is currently serving a nine-day ban and looked set to miss out on riding 10-1 shot Luther in the Prix du Jockey Club on Sunday.
But jockeys in France are allowed to play a so-called joker once a year in order to lift a ban for a single day.
It has been a rough few weeks for Shoemark, who lost the job as John Gosden's No1 and was stripped of the French 1,000 Guineas on Fellowes' Shes Perfect by the stewards.
But he and Fellowes will at least get the chance for what would be sweet revenge in Chantilly.
Fellowes said: 'The rules in France are different, jockeys can't move dates of a ban around like they can here, but Kieran can play a joker so he will be able to ride on Sunday.
'It's great that he'll be able to get back on Luther as he's a brilliant jockey and he knows the horse very well.'
Fellowes has had a tough go of it recently, too, and he was gutted when his appeal against Shes Perfect's demotion was thrown out.
He said: 'Maybe the Lord will be looking down and saying, 'you know what, he deserves a change of luck'.
'Luther seems in really good form, he is fresh and well and he'll have one more little piece of work before the weekend.
"It looks like he is crying out for ten furlongs but he has lots of tactical speed, so I think he will be bang there.
"If you watch the Guineas back he sat close to a very strong pace, and the other three who are running in the French Derby at the weekend all sat right out the back.
"We used a fair bit of petrol to get to the position we were in, and I think of all the horses who ran in the Guineas we have a rock-solid chance.
'My main worry is it looks like being a big field and if you're drawn high at Chantilly, anything higher than 10, you've had it. I can't buy a good draw at the moment, but maybe we are due one.'
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