Fallon to contest ban
Kieran Fallon will appeal the ban that has ruled him out of both the 1,000 and 2,000 Guineas at Newmarket.
The six time champion jockey must serve a ten day ban after officials found him guilty of not riding horse betting outsider Sukhothai to the line at Kempton, and admits that while he will fight the penalty, he is unlikely to see the suspension overturned.
"I'm not going down without a fight, but I think I'm fighting a losing battle." He said on Thursday.
Riding the James Fanshawe-trained horse, Fallon was caught for second place by the fast—finishing Watered Silk in the 1m3f handicap, eventually finishing a short head behind in third.
The ban will run from April 17th to May 6th after stewards adjudged that Fallon had not ridden to obtain the best possible finish, which means he will miss the first classic of the season on April 30th, and the 1,000 Guineas a day later.
The ban centres around an allegation in the stewards report that Fallon “dropped his hands” shortly before being beaten across the line into third place.
Writing on his Twitter account, the British Horse Authority’s Paul Struthers explained: he stewards asked Kieren Fallon to explainwhy he appeared to drop his hands shortly before the winning post and was subsequently beaten into third place.
"The stewards found Fallon to be in breach of Rule (B)59.3.2.1, in that he failed to ride out on a horse that would have finished second. They suspended him for ten days (April 27 to May 6)."
The 46-year-old has been embroiled in controversy before. Having spent three years out of the sport for race fixing, a charge he was eventually cleared of, Fallon has also served an 18 month drugs ban.
