This is an unhappy week in the thriving career of Seb Sanders. Embarrassed by a failed breath-test in Sweden and disrupted by two minor bans, he compounded the gloom yesterday by conceding defeat in his ardent attempt to retain the champion jockeys' title he shared with Jamie Spencer last year.

There is no sense of failure in the admission, nor should there be. Sanders, by his own assessment, has had “a terrific year” - at least until this week - but realism clouded his features as he acknowledged that, with evening racing about to end, Ryan Moore's lead of more than 30 winners is impregnable.

“I suppose I've accepted it's out of reach now,” Sanders said. “It would need something catastrophic to happen to Ryan, because he's just too far ahead. It's not going to change my outlook and I'm certainly not saying I won't be champion again, but it was always going to be tough to beat him this year.”

Sanders believes he would be closer but for the leg injury sustained at Nottingham in June. “I came back after two days and rode with painkillers but it was weeks before I got over it. It wrecked my metabolisms for a bit.”

He remains mortified by the incident in Sweden on Sunday and the two-week ban that will apply in this country unless he wins an appeal. First, though, he has another three-day suspension to serve, starting tomorrow. York's Ebor meeting cannot come soon enough for him.

“With Look Here in the Yorkshire Oaks, Kingsgate Native in the Nunthorpe and Wicked Daze in the Ebor, it's a big week. If things go right, the Sanders household could be a happier place than it's been this past week.”

Having won the first race at Salisbury, Sanders was well on the way to his evening rides at Great Leighs when Moore stretched his lead with victory on Ordnance Row in the group three Sovereign Stakes.

Salisbury's richest race drew a competitive field but Ordnance Row, second last year, held on tenaciously from Laa Rayb. Richard Hannon Jr, son of the trainer, said: “He's not the most talented horse but few would have his guts. He was first off the bridle but still first past the post.”

Michael Bell, fourth with Redford, hopes to run Art Connoisseur in the Gimcrack Stakes on Wednesday. Unbeaten until his defeat by Mastercraftsman at the Curragh, his appearance depends only on the ground. “He was beaten by a very good colt in Ireland but they'd overwatered and that was against him,” Bell said. “We're desperate to run in the Gimcrack, provided it's not a Knavesmire quagmire.”