Kieren Fallon

Andrew Longmore

Kieren Fallon is the most successful Flat jockey of the modern era. Yet controversy is never far away whether it is attempting to pull a rival jockey from his horse in mid-race or checking into a rehab clinic because of drink problems. Yet even this was nothing compared to being charged with conspiracy to defraud in July 2006 a charge he strenuously denied. In December 2007 he was cleared but a day later it was revealed that he had again failed a drugs test while riding in France.

But there is a different side to Fallon a man who never got on a race horse until he was almost eighteen and yet quickly developed a natural rapport with his horses that makes them respond to him like no other jockey. Six times Champion Jockey a seventh title was taken from his grasp when he had an horrific career-threatening fall in June 2000. He has won fifteen Classics including the Derby three times and is currently based in Ireland at Ballydoyle with Aidan O'Brien.