of course he won on Top Cees but 'unfortunately' managed to find a lot of trouble in running in the races preceding the win.

Surely no one can argue that Fallon was anything less than a terrific jockey - on the other hand, surely no one can argue that he has been his own worst enemy on more than one occasion - I would imagine that deep down he has many regrets - history will never place him as an all time great.

Hearing the Ballinger Ridge incident repeated again drives me to despair - he made a mistake - no more than that - suggesting that getting beaten an inch travelling at 35mph was deliberate is totally ridiculous.

Come on every one who no`s anything about racing has to admit fallon was unbelievable for 12years he was the best since lester

I would still have Kinane and Murtagh ahead of him any day of the week, both on and off the track.

A great jockey in his prime. How do we want our heroes, squeaky clean? No thanks. Some of the greatest sportsmen in history have all had an element of 'flawed genius' about them. And that's why we love them.

I suppose crepello it will all depend on how short you want that list to be but I'd certainly have him as an all time great anyway.

You don't get lucky and get a job like Cecil's flushgordon1, you've usually done something that catches the eye and puts you in the frame.

Winning group races for the Ramsden's like the Solario (Island Magic) and Gimcrack (Chilly Billy last to first) and in the process beaten big name owner/trainer/jockey combos like Sheikh Mo/Loder/Detttori, Hamdan/Hern/Carson, Maktoum Al Maktoum/Stoute/Swinburn, Sangster/PC-H/Reid and Highclere/Hannon/Eddery as well as the Cherry Hinton for Stoute on Dazzle plus showing he could get the job done in high pressure situations like Top Cees in the Chester Cup meant he was always going to be snapped up by a top yard regardless, although Stoute looked the more obvious one at the time though.

It might well be a recurring theme asparagus and he's clearly a flawed human being and his own worst enemy but he's nowhere near as bad as some make out and many of the things he's got grief for just weren't the case. The stuff he has done is fair enough though and down to him alone.

It's never been proved that he was the jockey involved in the Cecil domestic affair although it was supposed to have happened in a hotel in Ireland on a day Fallon was riding for Henry Cecil at Goodwood and Cecil later had to pay him damages for unfair dismissal. The Ballinger Ridge scenario was a total embarrassment when anyone who knows the first thing about British racing (so that excludes the Met Police and their star witness Aussie steward) and the owner who punched him claiming Fallon had hampered his horse during a race later admitted he got that wrong and wrote a later of apology to Fallon.

Maybe just another case of an easy target due to his reputation eh?

I'm a little bit embarrassed here for you if I'm honest asparagus and this is the perfect example of someone either getting the gist of what was said but not what actually what was or someone letting the media form their views for them.

He didn't "tip" Rye to win, he suggested he thought it was the one to beat and that he didn't strongly fancy his own mount and considering Rye was the 8/11f and the 17 times raced but still a maiden Ballinger Ridge was 15/8 2f, the next in the betting was 9/1 and then everything else was either 20s, 25s, 33s, 50s and 66s then ask any jockey in a race where the fav is odds-on which one does he thinks will win/is the danger and I'm sure they will say that odds-on fav too.

Plus yes, clearly the tactic to use when trying to deliberately get one beaten isn't to drop it out last, get behind other runners and boxed in on the rail when everyone's attention is on what's going on up front and instead it's to go off 15L clear and then drop your hands so that another runner can pass you. It's also a bit odd to have to pull another horse to ensure the 8/11f will win and isn't it usually the 8/11f being pulled instead?

Fallon made a human error c0ck up and nothing else. He was about a horse's width off the rail and looked over his right shoulder where everything else was racing towards the middle of the track except the fav which was in his slipstream and tight on the rail and he didn't see it. He would have needed to look over his left shoulder to do that but once not seeing the fav, that's when he began to ease his own horse. The fav then moves off of the rail and Fallon looks again over his right shoulder, sees the fav which is now in the middle of the course too and you immediately see him panic via his body language and try to get the horse going again but is beaten a nose in the end and if anyone thinks that a jockey supposed to throw a race can judge it that narrowly then they are seriously deluded.

Oh and just for good measure, the 21 day ban he got caused him to miss the Dubai World Cup that year which I'm sure was potentially worth more to him than any inducement to throw a two bob race on the AW. I'm also no expert on arranging for jockeys to throw races for financial gain but if I were to try to arrange it and have it creep under the radar, then I'm not really sure going to one of the highest profile jockeys, the then current Champion Jockey, then current Derby winner and about to win it again a few months later and multiple Gr1 jockey in races all over the world would be my first choice of candidate. You only have to compare the profile and status of Fallon compared to the jockeys who have been warned off to see how laughable it is.

Mazher Mahmood, known as the Fake Sheikh who posed as a potential owner willing to invest a lot of money in the sport and the New of the World have been totally discredited over this affair, as well as on several other occasions such as a so-called plot to kidnap Victoria Beckham, fictional dirty bomb terrorist scenarios and his case against Tulisa Contostavlos was thrown out of court when his integrity was totally demolished as a fantasist and liar.

what is your connection with fellon?because THERE MUST BE ONE..

Going off to fast (ala BR) IS one of the many ways they try and get them beat.

Starfish, yes some of us are aware that there is more than one way to get a horse beat.

"Led, quickened over 3f out, kept on well, eased near finish, unchallenged (op 11-2)"

"Tracked leaders on inner, switched right approaching final furlong, not quicken inside final furlong (op 7-2 tchd 5-1 and 11-2 in places)"

"Steadied at start, soon detached, switched and raced wide, switched right and stayed on inside final furlong, never near to challenge (op 12-1 tchd 20-1 in places)"

Are you getting these comments from newspaper i.e Racing Post or some other media based opinion?

It is just that when you say things like this, and I quote " just not a drama queen or a sheep who needs those in the media to give me my opinions"  it makes you out to be a bit of a hypocrite.


The Racing Post's analysis of a race is usually nonsense or at least watered down when it comes to stating how a non jigger ran for obvious reasons

say*

I form my own opinions starfish and coffee and then use facts provided by the media to support them.

It's not the Racing Post's "opinion" that a horse took the lead in a race or was held up, drifted in the market or returned at a certain SP, they are reporting facts and opinions and facts are two completely different things, opinions can be quibbled but facts can't, so I'm afraid your hypocrite claim is as much nonsense as your one that Fallon got lucky to lose and nearly ballsed it up on Ballinger Ridge. Why even chance that though by going to the front when there are far easier and safer ways to do it?

The Racing Post might or might not have known Fergal Lynch's mounts were non-jiggers when doing their post race summary but they aren't going to be as inaccurate to say a horse was held up when it made the running and vice versa, so whilst maybe not casting any aspersions as to whether the horse raced to win, they will still report accurately the detail and manner in which it ran its race.

And yes me telling you that you are talking nonsense does sum me up, it sums me up as someone willing to say when someone else is talking nonsense and Fallon was charged over supposedly throwing 27 races, of which he actually won 6 of them, costing the laying syndicate £160k in one race alone, so that's a winning strike rate of around 22% of races he was deliberately trying to lose apparently, which is a strike rate that any jockey trying to win would be proud of but let me guess, he ballsed those up too and got unlucky did he?

One of the races he won on was Daring Aim:

Reluctant to start and whirling tail, soon led, cajoled and looked awkward from over 1f out, nursed along to hold persistent challenger, fine ride (op 5-2)

Clearly a horse that if Fallon ever wanted to get it beaten where he would have genuine reasons to lose then it was this one and yet he beat the 8/11f on it.

The Aussie steward the prosecution used as their star witness said he would have called an inquiry even on races Fallon won such as on Beauvrai, another winner the laying syndicate layed and lost on where he claimed Fallon had "used extreme tactics to try to lose on a horse that was clearly superior." He held the horse up before coming from behind to win and that's extreme tactics?

Fallon was apparently being asked about the prospects of his mounts by a certain Newmarket barman and he would tell him whether he thought they had a chance or not. That barman would then lay the ones that didn't get a positive mention and later got in with an owner who has been warned off previously for laying his own horses. 21 of the 27 horses Fallon didn't think would win didn't but those 6 did, including Daring Aim that was 2nd fav to the 8/11f the same way Ballinger Ridge was 2nd fav to 8/11f Rye and if Fallon didn't think Daring Aim would win then take a wild guess as to the one he felt was the danger. I'm going out on a limb here and suggesting the 8/11f just as he said Rye at 8/11f was the danger to Ballinger Ridge. One 2nd fav he won on and another he got beaten on after  a human error, so the syndicate won lost on one and won on the other.

Beauvrai he only rode once and doubt he ever rode it at work for the trainer Vic Smith so probably wouldn't have known much about it to give it a positive mention.

Levitator was another winner that was still a maiden after 5 starts until Fallon won on its 6th and would he strongly recommend a horse of that profile? His horse was also 2nd fav that day too.

Barking Mad was another 2nd fav winner they layed that won at 9/2 after opening at 5/2 and drifting out to 5/1.

And the syndicate's biggest individual loss was when Fallon got Russian Rhythm up on the line in the Lockinge despite being headed late on. She was making her seasona debut for that race in mid-May having been off the course for 7 months and was up against race fit rivals, some that had already run twice that season and had won too. Is it too much of a stretch of the imagination to think Fallon felt she might need the race and certainly couldn't have been given as a certainty? If the syndicate then layed it but he won on it then........

It was actually 17 races the syndicate layed in but he won on 6 of them (27 was the full number the court case looked into) so that's even worse for the syndicate if his winning strike rate when supposedly trying to lose was 35% and exactly what would your reaction be if you were paying a jockey to lose races and he ended up winning more than 1 in every 3? How many winners would he have to win on and how much money would you have to lose before you considered the arrangement maybe wasn't working?

Unless of course Fallon had no idea his mounts were being layed and was beaten on the ones not good enough but won on the ones that were.

They winter nights must fly in

No, genuinely meaning they winter nights must fly in

Sorry I missed your amusing little "analogy" about the mighty Sunderland Ima, I was away in sanny essix on courses and other sh1te. Proper witch-burning country it was with no access to wi-fi, hence no betfair.
Tickled me tho...