Fallon was made feel 'like a terrorist'

RACING: Kieren Fallon claimed yesterday that he felt that he was being "treated like a terrorist" after he was arrested in a dawn raid on Wednesday morning by police investigating allegations of race-fixing.

Fallon returned to the saddle at Salisbury less that 24 hours after being released on bail after several hours of questioning. He was met by a media scrum when he arrived at the course and, though he refused to talk to reporters during racing, he later released a statement through his solicitor which was relayed via a presenter on the satellite station Racing UK.

According to this statement, Fallon insists that he has done nothing wrong and that the police will find no evidence to assist their case on his home computer, which was among items seized for examination. The jockey claims that he "cannot even work" the computer and that "it is only there for the kids".

Fallon arrived at the track yesterday in a silver Mercedes driven by a minder and made his way into the weighing room through a back entrance. He stared straight ahead as he walked out to ride Golden Fury in the opening race and acknowledged neither the journalists nor the scattered cries of support.

In the race Golden Fury, the 5 to 1 third-favourite, led in the early stages but faded in the last two furlongs to finish fourth of the five runners. Fallon's five remaining mounts were also beaten. But the fact that two of these were saddled by his principal employer, champion trainer Michael Stoute, suggested that for the moment at least Fallon's job with the yard is safe.

Fallon also described most of the questions put to him as "silly" and said that he was quizzed about no particular races during four or five hours of questioning. The rider's legal representative Christopher Stewart-Moore has advised Fallon not to give an official interview, but the solicitor gave Lydia Hislop of Racing UK a number of details about Wednesday's events.

Stewart-Moore, who was present throughout the jockey's interrogation, told Hislop that Fallon was asked questions such as "Can you stop a horse by pulling its reins?", and that they kept asking him the same questions over and over again. One officer is said to have asked Fallon: "You are renowned for riding a horse very hard. If you didn't ride a horse very hard from the beginning to the end of a race, you aren't doing your job properly, are you?"

The solicitor told Hislop he said to the officer: "You clearly don't know anything about horseracing by saying that. Think about the Olympics, when we were congratulating one athlete for not running too fast early on. It's the same for horses."

Hislop reported that the question was repeated, prompting Stewart-Moore to say: "If you don't mind me saying, I find your questions naive." The police officer is said to have replied: "I know nothing about horseracing so you will have to bear with me."

According to Hislop, Stewart-Moore also said an officer had described Fallon's meeting with Miles Rodgers, warned-off former head of the Platinum Racing syndicate, as "the nub of our case". The solicitor reportedly said to the officer: "Are you serious in saying that this meeting is the nub of your case?" Fallon shared a lift to the airport with Rodgers after a meeting at Leicester and Stewart-Moore insists no conversation took place between the pair.