Fallon targeting first winner
Kieren Fallon has his sights set on an elusive winner this weekend after his first rides back at Lingfield and Kempton on Friday drew a blank.
The six-times champion jockey headed to the track for the first time in the Britain since finishing unplaced on aboard Divine River at Newbury on June 27, 2006, and the closest he came to the winner’s enclosure was two second-place finishes.
Fallon has been absent for the last couple of years due to a combination of the Old Bailey trial into alleged race-fixing which ended in the judge ruling there was no case to answer, and an 18-month drugs suspension imposed by the French authorities.
His presence ensured a bumper 1,350 crowd at Lingfield, and he emerged fourth-last from the weighing room at 2.10pm to a ripple of warm applause for his mount aboard Rare Malt in the Withyham Median Auction Maiden Stakes.
Amy Weaver’s juvenile carried plenty of support as the 13-8 joint favourite, but failed to provide the dream comeback by being relegated into second by the Hayley Turner-ridden Mr Mahoganeigh.
Dylan Thomas in the 2007 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe remains the 44-year-old’s last taste of success, with his remaining comeback rides all finishing down the field on ’Fallon Friday’.
Fallon admitted that he was surprised at how rusty he felt, adding: “It’s taking longer than I thought to get a feel of the racecourse again.
“My fitness is fine, it’s just a case of getting used to the track and the feel of a race again and it will be a bonus to have today under my belt.
“I just want to ride as many winners as I can and hopefully have a crack at the championship next year.
“The jockeys’ title has been my ambition from the time I stopped riding. It is going to be tough as Ryan Moore has a great stable behind him.
“It doesn’t seem as though much has changed in the weighing room and the boys are still doing their own thing. I just hope I can get a winner and if I do, I can relax into the game. If I don’t, there’s going to be a little bit of nerves.”
After his second-place finish at Lingfield, Fallon’s results got worse through the afternoon with Roodee King finishing fourth, Diriculous taking fifth and Satwa Gold beating just one home.
Having tanked around the M25, he arrived at Kempton for three rides and had a brief brush with the stewards after occupying third-place aboard Wigan Lane in division two of the Celtic Contractors Nursery Handicap.
He was cautioned for careless riding for allowing his mount to hang into the whip, and later bemoaned a lost opportunity.
He said: “I should have really won the last race, but the gap closed on me and I’m sure with my first winner everything will fall into place.”
That win proved elusive later in the evening with Arte Viva beaten by a staying on length, and Sir Michael Stoute’s Bugaku just fourth on his final ride of the day.
