Fallon to appeal 18-month ban

Kieren Fallon is to appeal after being banned from racing for 18 months by France Galop after testing positive for a banned substance following a race at Deauville in August 2007.

Fallon appeared before the French racing authorities on Wednesday as they considered the case of the six-time champion jockey, whose B-test sample confirmed the original positive test for a banned substance.

That hearing was held at France Galop’s headquarters at Boulogne-Billancourt in Paris, with the verdict being revealed today.

Fallon failed the test after Myboycharlie’s success in the Group One Darley Prix Morny on August 19.

Fallon previously served a six-month suspension imposed by France Galop for testing positive for a metabolite of cocaine in June 2006.

He was recently acquitted along with five others of conspiracy to defraud Betfair customers by a jury at the Old Bailey.

Henri Pouret, the head of rulebook and stewards’ secretariat department at France Galop, confirmed: “The jockey Kieren Fallon has been suspended for a period of 18 months. However, he has already appealed and that is the reason why no statement has been issued by France Galop.

“Now our appeal commission at France Galop will meet and will examine the appeal.

“However, I cannot tell you right now when the appeal commission will meet. Usually a suspension will start nine days after the decision has been announced, but seeing that the person in question has appealed, those dates could change.”

He also explained: “In France each decision is reached individually. There are no rules in our rulebook that say a jockey has to be suspended 18 months for having failed a test a second time.”

Fallon’s employers Coolmore stuck by him following his six-month ban and the jockey soon bounced back on his return in June this year, winning the Group One Pretty Polly Stakes at the Curragh on Peeping Fawn at the end of that month.

However, he was unable to ride in Britain at that time because of the court case, which cost him several big-race winners including the King George VI And Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes on Dylan Thomas.

Fallon is licensed in Ireland, but the French suspension would apply worldwide.

“We are not going to make any comment on this issue at all,” said the British Horseracing Authority’s PR manager Paul Struthers.

Coolmore spokesman Richard Henry told PA Sport: “This is a personal matter for Kieren and for us there is no change – we will continue to use the best available on the day, as before.”

Jump jockey Dean Gallagher, who served an 18-month ban imposed by France Galop after testing positive for cocaine, has both sympathy and regret for Fallon.

Gallagher’s suspension kicked in during 2002 when he again tested positive after previously serving a six-month spell for the same offence in France during the spring of 2000.

He has worked hard to re-establish himself as a rider across the Channel and is in a better position than anyone to know what feelings Fallon is likely to experience over the next year and a half.

“It’s disappointing for him but he has lots of people in his corner fighting for him to help him through,” said Gallagher.

“The French Jockey Club have not had any option but to ban him for 18 months - that’s what I got – and I hope in a way he can use me as an example.”