Fallon denies role in race-fixing scandal
Fallon was released on bail last night from the station in Bury St Edmonds after 12 hours of questioning. He said he was innocent and revealed that police had asked him about his involvement with Miles Rodgers, formerly a director of the Platinum Racing Club syndicate.
Rodgers was barred from racecourses for two years by the Jockey Club in March after he was found to have made substantial bets on the internet betting exchange Betfair that two of his syndicate’s horses would lose. Rodgers denied wrongdoing and claimed the decision was “a travesty”.
Last night, Fallon’s solicitor Christopher Stewart-Moore said the jockey had met Rodgers only once, during a 10-minute car journey in Leicester.
“The circumstances that relate to Kieren Fallon’s arrest involve an individual who he has met on one occasion and whose name he did not even know at the time the meeting happened,” he said.
Meanwhile, Paddy Power bookmakers suspended betting on the flat jockey championship race as it emerged that Fallon faces a maximum 10 years in prison if convicted of fixing dozens of horse races.
Fallon, three-times Derby winner and five-times champion jockey, was arrested in a dawn raid by police investigating the alleged fraud.
Sixteen people, including another Irish rider, Fergal Lynch, were questioned at police stations in Yorkshire, Hertfordshire and Suffolk. More than 130 officers, led by detectives from the City of London, raided 19 addresses across England.
Detectives are probing 80 races which took place on English courses over the last two years. A senior police officer yesterday described the case as one of “great national significance”.
Two other jockeys, a trainer and 12 members of a single syndicate were also released on police bail last night, along with Fallon.
Paddy Power said all betting on who ends the year as the champion jockey on the flat has been suspended pending the conclusion of the investigation. Fallon, a 39-year-old father of three, leads the race with 141 wins.
Friends of Fallon have angrily denounced the arrests, with one saying: “Give it time and it will all come out. The Jockey Club keep shooting themselves in the foot.”
