Legendary American jockey Mike Smith suffered some bad news on Monday when it was announced that he would be demoted to third place in the international jockeys' challenge at the inaugural two-day Saudi Cup meeting in Riyadh in February, where he initially finished first.
He has seen himself slip down to third due to one of his two winners testing positive for the banned substance of cobalt, the Bedan Alsubaie-trained Sun Hat was seen to have the substance in her post-race urine sample.
Due to this inconvenience for the 54 year old veteran rider, who also had his prize money in the feature Saudi Cup cut by 60 percent due to using the whip above the permitted level on second placed Midnight Bisou, Sibylle Vogt was promoted to the top spot.
The female rider became only the second woman to ride a winner under rules in Saudi Arabia after Lisa Allpress had claimed the opening leg of the challenge but now she is the winner of the inaugural title.
The standings were made up but 15 points awarded for the winner of the races and then you still were awarded points going down to fifth spot.
Each of the four legs in the competition were worth $400,000, with an additional $30,000 bonus to the winner which really has topped off a unfortunate 2020 so far for the rider.
NEW JOCKEYS' CHALLENGE TITLE STANDINGS
1 Sibylle Vogt (32 points)
2 Mickaelle Michel (20)
3 Mike Smith (18)
4 Frankie Dettori and Lisa Allpress (15)