Fallon guilty of being naive, stupid and incompetent– nothing else!
To understand the attraction the story holds, one has to realise the way this works for the different strands that make up the said media.
Most people in authority and, indeed, most who work in these organisations - television, radio and newspapers - know little or nothing about racing.
As a result, they rarely feel comfortable discussing the subject. Explaining the simplest wager, for instance, can sometimes be, to put it mildly, quite trying.
Take it a step further and tell them that a e100 double on two 3-1 shots will reap a dividend of €1,500 and they will look at you as if you had just dropped in from another planet.
But offer a 'sexy' tale, one that indicates cheating round every corner, skullduggery under every rock and they’re away.
Now, the comfortable feeling sweeps into the pores and ‘great story’ becomes the catch-cry of the day, often from guys, and sometimes gals, who wouldn’t recognise a proper racing-story if it popped out of the television and hit them on the head or jumped off the page and bit them on the nose. I heard one of them at it on radio the other morning. He admitted he knew nothing about racing, but felt entitled - and the word is used advisedly - to guffaw and bray like a demented donkey when talking about Fallon.
Racing, generally speaking, is shuffled well down the scale on television and radio and buried away in newspapers.
People in authority frequently prefer stories on sports they understand, like that bastion of democracy, the GAA, or nomadic soccer and rugby.
It’s no big deal and let’s not beat ourselves up over it. Who gives a toss?
Anyway, let’s examine Fallon’s ‘guilt.’ As of now, he is guilty of just one thing, total incompetence on Ballinger Ridge at Lingfield.
I actually saw the race live and was simply astonished at the manner in which he eased the horse in the closing stages.
He deserved the maximum penalty from the Jockey Club. If it was six or twelve months then that’s what he should have been given. It was 21 days and the Jockey Club behaved honourably and properly.
The problem for Fallon, of course, was that the so-called unusual betting patterns on the exchanges and his comments to undercover journalists from the News Of The World, dragged him into further controversy.
Non-racing people have taken the simplistic view, I’ve heard it in my own office this week, that Fallon prevented Ballinger Ridge from winning for profit. Quite frankly, there is no other way of putting it.
Equally frankly, there is no evidence at all to back up such an assertion. If Fallon wanted to stop Ballinger Ridge from winning he would have buried him in behind horses, not go like a scalded cat from the start and hold a ten lengths advantage early in the straight.
Then we are supposed to believe he eased down through the last furlong to get him beaten - by a short head - in the full glare of television cameras, with thousands watching on Attheraces.
This does stretch credulity beyond breaking point, power the game into the realms of fantasy and indicate that racing really is a precise science. Spare me.
The fact he told the News Of The World that Rye was the most likely winner of the particular contest was no big deal.
That sort of comment is available from jockeys and trainers, those who fall into the realistic category, every day there’s racing.
I spoke to a trainer this week who told me he told people at a point-to-point last Sunday that a horse of his, who was off for his life, wouldn’t beat another in a race. He was proved right. Is he guilty of something? Of course not.
In an interview in the Examiner on Tuesday, Ruby Walsh gave as his opinion that Rooster Booster will win next Tuesday’s Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham. He rides second favourite, Rigmarole.
Has Walsh done something wrong? Of course he hasn’t and it goes without saying will be straining every sinew to turn-over the favourite.
Racing is littered with examples of jockeys who have eased up prematurely and lost a race as a result.
Many of us remember a pilot who rode a finish with a full circuit to cover at Tramore one day. He went on to later ride the winner of the Cheltenham Gold Cup.
In any sport, where money and gambling is involved, there will always be an element of cheating. There’s no point attempting to deny that.
But let’s cut through the hysteria, the News Of The World garbage and the ramblings of the likes of McCririck.
Fallon has been naive, stupid, incompetent on Ballinger Ridge and the centre of unwanted controversy for longer than he would care to remember. As of now, however, there is no evidence to link him with any betting scam and we shouldn’t lose sight of that.
Racing remains the best game in town, the one that gets you flying out of the cot in the morning. It will rise above this, and everything else that’s going on at the moment as well, in no time at all and so, hopefully, will Fallon.
