Horse Racing: Crunch Day for Fallon

Kieren Fallon's immediate future as a jockey in British racing will be decided in London this evening, when the Horseracing Regulatory Board's appeal board will decide whether to reverse last Friday's decision to ban him from riding here until he has faced trial on a charge of conspiracy to defraud Betfair customers.

If the Irishman's appeal is allowed, he could be riding Marcus Andronicus in Friday's Group One July Cup at Newmarket. Should it fail, he would face a long struggle in the courts in an attempt to gain approval to ride in the UK.

The three-strong board will comprise as chairman Sir Roger Buckley, a former High Court judge, another judge in Christopher Hall, who is a former chairman of the old Jockey Club's disciplinary panel, and Viscount Allendale, also a former member of that panel. Fallon is not expected to attend; he will be represented by Christopher Stewart-Moore, his solicitor.

The hearing will not convene until 5pm, as a number of the legal representatives involved are required elsewhere earlier, and so the board's verdict is unlikely to be delivered until tomorrow although an announcement late tonight is possible.

Fallon's contract to ride as Aidan O'Brien's stable jockey, which is in effect his passport to the world of top-level international racing, is also likely to depend on the hearing's outcome.

John Magnier's Coolmore Stud, which is behind O'Brien's Ballydoyle training operation, is perhaps the most commercially-minded bloodstock business in the world. Magnier is personally grateful to Fallon for many big-race victories, and holds his riding talents in the highest regard, but will still want a jockey who is available for all Europe's major events.