Court hears Fallon interviews with police

Kieren Fallon told police in England he had never deliberately lost a race and the idea of doing it was like a plot from a Dick Francis novel, a court heard today.

The six-time champion jockey said he always put in the “extra measure” to win, his trial heard.

Fallon told detectives it would be impossible to do so as “horses have minds of their own”.

He admitted he had held up horses in the early part of a race so they could come from the back to win.

“If you go too fast too early, you’ll end up like Paula Radcliffe did in the Olympics,” he told police.

Fallon, 42, is one of six men who deny taking part in an alleged £2m race-fixing conspiracy.

Today, police interviews with Fallon were read out at the trial.

Asked about the practice of race-fixing he said: “It is impossible. Horses have minds of their own.”

Detective Constable Matthew Hussey of City of London Police asked him: “Have you ever deliberately lost a race on a horse?”

“Never,” Fallon replied.

He was also asked if he knew of other jockeys talking about doing it.

“If it was it was as a joke because it is impossible,” he answered.

But, later in the interview, he said: “Some have tried but have been caught.”

The policeman asked him about his reputation for “getting the maximum out of a horse” and asked if he had a “degree of control” over his ride.

“Not really, no,” Fallon said.

He was asked: “If the horse wants to go as fast as it can, you couldn’t slow it down?”

Fallon replied: “Well, you wouldn’t want to slow it down, only to push.”

He was asked: “Say if you wanted to lose a race?”

He answered: “I wouldn’t, it wouldn’t come into my category of riding.”

Fallon said he had never been asked to lose a race but had given tips.

Asked what he knew about the practice of “stopping a horse”, he said he had read about it in “Dick Francis stories” and “Mickey Rooney films”.

Fallon was asked by Hussey about the “extra measure” he was “renowned for putting into a race”.

“I always put that in,” he said.

“My riding has never been questioned. If that extra measure wasn’t going in, I’d be in front of the stewards and I’d be suspended.”

Earlier, the court heard Fallon rode a “brilliant” race to win on the Queen’s horse Daring Aim at Newmarket even though it was allegedly supposed to have lost as part of the betting scam.

Trainer Michael Stoute, 72, said: “It was a brilliant ride. She was not helping him.”

Stoute also had praise for Fallon’s ability a month earlier in June 2004 on Krynica at Pontefract, which also won and is included in the alleged plot.

After watching the race again, he said: “He is squeezing her and encouraging her. It is beautiful horsemanship – and she was not very good.”

Fallon was retained by the veteran trainer at his Newmarket stables between 2000 and 2004.

Asked by John Kelsey-Fry, QC, defending, what motivated him – money or winning - Stoute said: “While he was with me, it had been the pursuit of winning.”

It is alleged Fallon was involved in a plot to prevent horses running on their merits to allow a crooked betting syndicate to win on internet betting exchange Betfair.

Jockeys 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.

Lynch’s brother, Shaun Lynch, 38, of Belfast; professional gambler Miles Rodgers, 38, of Silkstone, South Yorkshire; and barman Philip Sherkle, 42, of Tamworth, Staffordshire, also plead not guilty.

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

The trial was adjourned until tomorrow.