Fallon won race despite 'extreme coolness', court told

Six-times champion jockey Kieren Fallon won a race despite riding with “extreme coolness”, the Old Bailey heard today.

The race on Beauvrai was one of two races where Fallon won but which top racing steward Ray Murrihy said he had “concerns” about.

He told the race-fixing trial that he felt Fallon had questions to answer about the way he rode the horse and another winner, 'Barking Mad'.

The prosecution alleges Fallon was involved in a plot to allow horses to lose so a crooked betting syndicate could win money.

Mr Murrihy said he would ask why Beauvrai’s hood was taken off after the stalls were open at Yarmouth in August 2004, giving it a slow start.

Then why Fallon did not take the opportunity of starting his run which eventually won the race.

Mr Murrihy said: “I found the ride by Kieren Fallon quite remarkable in a number of aspects.

“The run was with a minimum of vigour. He goes past and wins the race. You can say it is a ride typified by extreme coolness.

“He puts his horse in a position behind other runners and it is only in the last furlong that he moves on the horse and asks it to win.

“It was an extreme tactic. We would be asking why he rode his horse so extremely.”

Murrihy said the ride on Barking Mad at Windsor on the previous day saw Fallon looking back at other riders while he was in the lead, and slow down before winning.

“The rider should be making sure he wins the race. He should be pushing the horse,” said Mr Murrihy.

Mr Murrihy picked out 13 races ridden by Fallon and fellow jockeys Darren Williams and Fergal Lynch on which he said he would have held a steward’s inquiry.

The Chief Steward of Australia was asked to give his independent opinion of 27 races which the prosecution alleges were involved in the plot.

He said Australian rules were based on British practice but differed in some aspects of what was allowed.

Jockeys Kieren Fallon, 42, formerly of Newmarket, Cambridgeshire, but now of Tipperary, Ireland, Fergal Lynch, 29, of Boroughbridge, North Yorkshire, and Darren Williams, 29, of Leyburn, North Yorkshire, deny the conspiracy between December 2002 and August 2004.

Shaun Lynch, 38, of Belfast, Miles Rodgers, 38, of Silkstone, South Yorkshire, and Philip Sherkle, 42, of Tamworth, Staffordshire, also plead not guilty.

Rodgers also denies concealing the proceeds of crime. All the defendants are on bail.