Title leader Silvestre de Sousa to miss eight of the next 10 days

If you are based in North Yorkshire, as Silvestre de Sousa is, the south coast may feel like a long way from home when your three mounts have all been well beaten. The pleasures of a large crowd enjoying a holiday atmosphere may be lost on you and even the delights of the Meatloaf tribute act may begin to pall, but De Sousa was still grinning, even as he acknowledged the long riding ban which will keep him off the track from Thursday until next week. Shaking off the disappointment of his third-place finish on the favourite in the opener here on Wednesday, he described satisfaction at the run of form which has taken him to the top of the jockeys' leaderboard, narrowly ahead of Paul Hanagan. "The horses are going well, I've had six winners in two days," he said. "But it'd be nice to get another one before the ban starts." That thought was at odds with his response when asked about the title race. "It's not in my thoughts at the moment. There's three months to go and I've got a few days [of suspension] coming up." In fact, De Sousa will be unable to ride for eight of the next 10 days, thanks to a series of low-key infractions at the end of last month. Three of the eight days relate to minor breaches of the whip rules, a fourth to a careless riding offence, but the bulk of his suspension derives from a race at Epsom when he weighed in a pound and a half lighter than he had weighed out. He admitted to the raceday officials that he had taken off his waterproof overtrousers after weighing out and that may have made the difference but De Sousa, who gave some thought to an appeal, seemed rueful as he reflected on the matter yesterday. "I weighed myself and I was the same weight, after," he said, "but the jockey has the responsibility. "It will be good to have a break," he added, frowning. He has no plans to take a holiday but will spend the time with his girlfriend. De Sousa will be a strong man if he can refrain from watching Hanagan over the next few days, to see if the reigning champ can retake the lead he lost on Tuesday. Five rides at Pontefract on Wednesday yielded nothing better than a couple of seconds for Hanagan, while De Sousa signed off, for now, with three rides at Kempton on Wednesday night, all of them losers. Kieren Fallon, fourth in the standings, has declared himself a live runner for the championship, which he last won in 2003. "I've been lazy all year and haven't been taking that many rides," he told At The Races, "but I think now we've got a couple of months left, I'm going to throw everything at it and see how we go." Ryan Moore underwent a double operation on Tuesday night following injuries to a shoulder and a thumb at Goodwood last week and his father, Gary, reported that all had gone well. "He should be back home some time tomorrow," he said. Moore is said to retain hopes of recovering in time to ride Workforce in the Arc on 2 October, which may now be the four-year-old's next race. The horse was not among the entries for the Champion Stakes, now worth £1.3m, when they were revealed on Wednesday, with connections reportedly accepting that the distance of a mile and a quarter does not suit him. Workforce has not been badly affected by the injury he sustained in last month's King George, when struck into by another runner. "He's progressing well and we've found nothing particularly untoward with him," said Lord Grimthorpe, spokesman for the owner Khalid Abdullah. "There are one or two bits and bobs, but nothing very major." Frankel, in the same ownership, is entered for both the Champion Stakes and the QEII over a mile, worth £1m, both to be run at Ascot a fortnight after the Arc. Grimthorpe said the shorter race remained the intended target for last week's Sussex Stakes winner.