ARC De Triomphe-winning rider Pierre-Charles Boudot has been questioned by investigators having been accused of rape.
The former French champion jockey has denied the allegations, which were first made by a female amateur rider in 2018.
She alleged that she was drugged and raped during a race meeting at Deauville, something 27-year-old Boudot strongly denies.
The joint hearing, which the woman also attended, was held at the police station in Chantilly, ordered by the judge leading the investigation.
Boudot’s lawyer Florence Gaudilliere told the French Associated Press (AFP) that her client attended the hearing voluntarily.
She said: “(Boudot) is the object of amorous revenge, he has absolutely nothing to reproach himself for.”
Boudot has not been placed under arrest during the inquiry.
In her complaint, filed in October 2018, the woman said she met Boudot in a nightclub, whose advances she said she had been turning down for several months.
In her deposition, she said: “A friend of Pierre-Charles Boudot’s offered me a glass of champagne which I drank. I felt groggy.”
She alleged she was later raped at the rider’s apartment.
She continued: “I realised what was going on, but I felt like I was outside myself and watching the scene.”
Boudot won the French jockey’s title in 2015 and 2016 and steered Waldgeist home in front in last year’s Arc ahead of Enable.
