Jockey Fallon walks free

2007-12-07 15:29

London - Former six-time champion jockey Kieren Fallon was cleared of race-fixing charges on Friday after a judge threw out the case for lack of evidence.

Trial judge Sir Thayne Forbes told the Old Bailey jury that there was no case to answer following defence submissions at the end of two months of prosecution evidence.

"I am of course relieved and delighted, but also outraged," said Fallon, one of the most successful jockeys in international horse racing of the past decade.

"There was never any evidence against me."

Fallon, fellow jockeys Fergal Lynch and Darren Williams, gambler and businessman Miles Rodgers and two other men had been accused of conspiring to throw races.

The six were alleged to have plotted to stop 27 horses from winning races between December 2002 and August 2004, defrauding customers of online gambling exchange Betfair and other bettors.

Banned from competing in Britain

The charges were dismissed by the judge before any of the defendants were asked to testify.

Fallon, who became British horse racing's champion jockey for the first time in 1997, won the English Derby in 1999 (Oath), 2003 (Kris Kin), and 2004 (North Light). Because of the charges against him, the Irish rider has been banned from competing in Britain for the past 17 months, but has been racing in Ireland, Australia and France.

Now that Fallon and the other jockeys have been cleared, their lawyers said they were free to ride again with immediate effect. The lawyers said they were demanding two inquiries, one into police testimony during the trial, and the other into why the Crown Prosecution Service proceeded with the case in the first place.

The charges were filed by the City of London Police, which specialises in corruption cases.

The case was based largely on evidence from an expert witness, Australian horse racing steward Ray Murrihy, who admitted during the trial that he knew little about the British rules of racing.

- AP