Mercurial jockey back in limelight

KIEREN FALLON'S RETURN: Today at Lingfield a legend in the saddle returns after an 18-month ban for drug abuse. Some feel it's his last throw of the dice, writes BRIAN O'CONNOR

A FRIDAY afternoon race meeting at Lingfield normally flies well under the media radar but it’s going to turn distinctly circus-like in rural Surrey today as attention centres on Kieren Fallon’s first ride in Britain for over three years.

Later he will make the short trip to Kempton for an evening meeting there. It’s a sign of how long the Co Clare native has been out of action that Kempton’s all-weather track was only a blueprint the last time he rode in Britain.

To Fallon fans this will be almost a second coming. The six-time champion jockey returning at 44 for what could be a final hurrah to an already tumultuously successful career that has yielded almost every prize in European racing worth a mention. Except of course today’s event will be a coming of a far greater digit. In fact if he were a cat Fallon would be totting up how many lives he has left.

This latest comeback is from an 18-month ban for cocaine use imposed by the French authorities on the appropriately named Myboycharlie after Prix Morny success in 2007. That came just a couple of months after returning from another six-month suspension for the same offence.

Throw in the residual fallout from a three-year race-fixing inquiry that ultimately exonerated Fallon but exhausted many racing people’s patience with the mercurial Irishman and it’s hardly surprising the media wagons are preparing to circle Lingfield with a vengeance.

However, this won’t be an uncomplicated welcome back for a roguish “bad boy” all nicely rehabilitated and packaged into a feel-good story destined for a general public that seldom if ever registers racing on its sporting horizon.

Fallon’s life has rarely been that straightforward and his reappearance won’t break the pattern. There are plenty thrilled that a major talent is back doing what he does best. Others, however, are not so sure. Not surprisingly the doubters are mostly keeping their reservations quiet: but not all of them.

“If he (Fallon) wants to make excuses, or if you want to make excuses for him, you’ll find them. But anyone who has ridden at the top of their profession will have been under pressure and most of them didn’t fall back on drugs,” said Willie Carson, a legendary five-time former champion himself. “He let racing down and he didn’t do it just once,” Carson added. “He’s a talented jockey but a flawed person.”

The ex-jockey is not alone. There are plenty current riders in the jockey’s rooms of Britain and Ireland who are hardly Fallon’s greatest fans, either personally or professionally. However, the man himself has tried to smooth over some of the rougher edges of the approach to this afternoon’s D-Day.

Certainly in the last few weeks Fallon, a man who has regularly professed his distrust and distaste of the media, has been talking like a politician on the make in a tight marginal. The promises have been coming out too. Fallon has let it be known his main aim is the reclaim the champion jockey title from Ryan Moore. He’s in the physical shape of his life and mentally tuned into what he wants to do like never before.

Fallon certainly looks fit. A recent medical check-up by the French racing authorities concluded his physical condition is “impeccable”. For a man who has battled problems with both drugs and alcohol, his latest addiction seems to be to physical fitness. There are also regular visits to a psychotherapist which Fallon has described as helpful.

To fans it all sounds and looks immensely encouraging. There have been link-ups with some of Britain’s most high-profile trainers such as Michael Stoute, who has remained steadfastly supportive through some rocky periods with his former stable jockey, and his Newmarket colleague Luca Cumani.

“Racing needs big players like him,” Cumani has said. “It’s as if Steven Gerrard or Frank Lampard had gone missing for 18 months. He’s flawed but lots of people are flawed and lots of athletes are flawed. It just so happens he’s a public figure whose flaws are there to be seen.”

What no one can argue about is that when Fallon’s head is right he remains one of the most outstanding jockeys of his generation. Possessed of a head as cool on the track as it can be hot off it, he is one of a handful of riders who can usually be relied upon to get it right when it really counts.

In flat racing’s split-second, multi-million euro jungle, that ability puts Fallon comfortably into the very top bracket alongside Messrs Kinane, Dettori and Murtagh. It also means that despite any outrage that might have greeted his drugs suspension, he was always going to be given another chance.

The sceptics, however, will remain sceptical, even if the Irishman gets off to a flier with his first rides back today. In returning from previous setbacks, Fallon has always managed to hit the ground running and there is enough Group One ammunition available to him this weekend.

High Standing in tomorrow’s Betfred Sprint Cup at Haydock and possibly Youmzain in Germany on Sunday present an ideal opportunity to make a big-race impact.

Kieren Fallon’s singular curse though is to be at his most vulnerable when he’s on top. And if nothing else, it’s that vulnerability that makes him such good box-office.