Racing: Fallon to face Jockey Club inquiry

Kieren Fallon, who appeared to drop his hands on Ballinger Ridge, a short-head second in the third race on the all-weather track at Lingfield yesterday, will have to face a Jockey Club inquiry following suspicious betting patterns before the race.

Ballinger Ridge, the 15-8 second favourite for the Median Auction Maiden Stakes, was 10 lengths clear at halfway. However, Fallon seemed to take things easy a furlong out and Rye, the 8-11 favourite, came with a late run under Chris Catlin to head Ballinger Ridge in the shadow of the post.

A deputation of around 100 angry punters quickly gathered outside the weighing room and booed and cat-called Fallon on his return. The resulting stewards' inquiry took nearly two hours to resolve. Andrew Balding, Ballinger Ridge's trainer who accompanied Fallon into the stewards' room, said: "It looked worse than it was. Kieren said he was giving our horse a breather and then was asking him to go again." The stewards interviewed Fallon, who said that his instructions had been to make the running and hang on to win the race, directions that Balding confirmed were correct. The trainer also added that the horse had run 19 times and was very difficult to win with. Having considered video evidence, the stewards found Fallon to be in breach of the rules in that he failed to ride out for first place.

John Maxse, the Jockey Club public relations director, said that there had been some concern at the betting patterns in the race and that was the reason behind the referral. Maxse commented: "Kieren Fallon has been referred on to the Jockey Club with the reason being that shortly before the race the security department did contact the Lingfield stewards to report some of what they describe as 'suspicious betting patterns'.

"In view of what happened in the race, it would be remiss of the stewards to resolve the matter on course without considering whether there is any correlation between the two."

It was not a happy day for the jockey fraternity at Lingfield as Neil Callan was taken to hospital after being involved in a four-horse pile-up in the preceding race. Callan was the only jockey injured and was taken to the East Surrey Hospital at Redhill for a check-up. The apprentice Ambrose Reilly was banned for two days, 13 and 14 March, after the stewards found him guilty of careless riding in the race.

* The jockey Mick Fitzgerald, who consulted the orthopaedic surgeon Dr Michael Foy yesterday, said that he will need a further X-ray examination next week on his broken left arm.

Racing in brief: Wetherby and Folkestone hold inspections

* Wetherby and Folkestone are taking the precaution of holding 7.30am inspections today as frost is forecast, but both courses are confident of racing.

* Cardenas, trained by Mario Hofer in Germany, has been cut from 33-1 to 20-1 by Ladbrokes for the Supreme Novices' Hurdle at Cheltenham after they laid a bet of £165,000 to £5,000.

* Tickets for the Grandstand Enclosure on the fourth day of Royal Ascot have sold out in record time. Racegoers have snapped up tickets for Friday, 18 June, when the feature race is the Coronation Stakes, and the enclosure has sold out two weeks earlier than last year. Both the Grandstand and Silver Ring enclosures are a complete sell-out for Gold Cup Day, Thursday, 17 June.