JOHN GOSDEN has dumped jockey Kieran Shoemark after Field Of Gold’s narrow defeat in Saturday’s 2000 Guineas.
The six-time champion trainer had discussions with co-trainer son Thady earlier this week and they decided to remove the under-pressure rider as the stable’s No1.
There has been lots of scrutiny on Shoemark, 29, ever since he replaced Frankie Dettori at Clarehaven Stables.
The yard endured a disappointing 2024 season, with their lowest number of winners since 2013, and a number of Shoemark’s rides in big races were called into question.
The Gosden’s publicly backed their man, but he again came in for criticism when hot favourite Field Of Gold was beaten just half a length having finished strongly in the Guineas at the weekend.
Gosden, who has never won the colts’ Classic, said post-race the horse was ‘too far back’ to have a chance of catching the eventual winner Ruling Court.
And it proved the breaking point in the Gosden-Shoemark relationship, with the yard now going to put up the best jockey available on their stable stars.
Thady Gosden told the Nick Luck Daily Podcast: “Naturally, since Saturday myself and John have gone through things together and decided that the best policy moving forward for the stable is to adopt the best available rider strategy.
“It’s still very early in the season and there’s plenty of time left to go but we believe that’s the right decision for the stable to have the best available rider alongside of course the significant number of retained riders pre-existing within the yard.”;
When asked if he hopes Shoemark will still ride for the yard, he added: “Yes. Of course, it’s a best available rider policy and we’ll see how that progresses as the year goes on.”;
Shoemark will ride for the yard at Chester today, including Queen Of Thieves in the Cheshire Oaks.
But he will not ride either of the stable’s French 2000 and 1000 Guineas contenders, Detain and Zanzoun, at Longchamp in Paris this weekend.
Colin Keane will get the leg up on Detain while Christophe Soumillon will ride Nell Gwyn Stakes winner Zanzoun in the fillies’ race.
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