Fallon surrounded by growing race-fixing row

A champion jockey was embroiled in a deepening controversy today after claims he told undercover journalists that his horse would lose a race which are now being investigated by the authorities.

Keiren Fallon was heavily criticised earlier this week after the horse - Ballinger Ridge – was pipped to the post despite having a huge lead earlier in the race.

Horse racing’s regulator, the Jockey Club, ordered an investigation after “unusual betting” patterns were reported on the race at Surrey’s Lingfield course on Tuesday.

New claims surfaced in The News Of The World today that Fallon told undercover reporters just hours before riding that he would lose and Rye – the horse which overtook Ballinger Ridge – would triumph.

The newspaper alleges he told them: “I’m actually down as the favourite. It’s not very good. The horse of Jamie Osborne’s going to win the race. A horse called Rye.”

The paper also claims that Fallon gave his opinion on other races during a meeting with reporters on Friday but “declined a cash payment” for such information.

“If you are on this, then there are no limits to the bets…. It’s not illegal for you, it’s illegal for us. As long as you don’t give me money,” Fallon is quoted as saying.

Fallon – who faces a 21-day ban if it is ruled he failed to push the horse properly towards the finish line – has been the UK’s champion jockey for six out of the last seven years.

A spokesman for the Jockey Club said it would be incorporating the newspaper’s evidence into its investigation.

He said: “We will be looking to see if there is anything that we can correlate between the betting patterns and the ride given to Ballinger Ridge.

“We will need to see if there are elements of the case which we can deal with separately, for example, the possibility of holding the hearing into Fallon’s failing to ride out before the full investigation into the betting patterns is completed.”

Fallon’s lawyer told the newspaper that his client had merely offered advice to people whom the jockey had been led to believe were members of the public.

He said: “As many jockeys do on TV on a daily basis, he gave them his views as to the chances of horses he was riding.

“These opinions were based on external factors which could affect their chances. He received no money for this and the way he rode the horses was in no way influenced by the information he had imparted.”

Earlier this week Fallon, speaking in the Daily Mirror, said of the controversial race: “I read there were suspicious betting patterns but I can assure anyone who thinks I’m linked with that sort of thing that they’re barking up the wrong tree.”