Kieren Fallon, six-time champion jockey, will be going flat out for a seventh title. He will be back on British racecourses in September, fully fit and with an ambition to ride 200 winners in 2010. Speaking from California in the wake of the announcement by the BHA that he will not be subjected to further disciplinary action and will be eligible for a licence to ride in Britain from September, he spoke of his happiness with life and his determination to ride his way back to the top.
     Speaking to Racing Post recently, Fallon, 43 said, “I am really looking forward to it. I’ve been waiting for this for a long time and can’t wait to get back to doing what I do best and what I know best. I can’t wait to get back into the weighing room and back to competing again. I will definitely be back in Britain to start race-riding in September. I will get a feeling for it this year, and then it will be all systems go for 2010. My ambition is to win the championship, to get it back. I never really lost it, but in 2004 everything started to fall apart and Frankie Dettori won it. My target is to ride 200 winners, which is what I did four of the six years I was champion. If anyone else can do that, well done to them. That’s my target.”
     Fallon also spoke of his contentedness with a life free from the pressure of investigation and prosecution, and his confidence that he will be able to return to his best riding form. He said, “I think I can ride, not just as well as I did, but better. I had a lot of pressure on me before. I won the Irish Champion Stakes and the Arc on Dylan Thomas in 2007 when my mind wasn’t really on the game. That pressure has gone. For the first time in years everything involving the racing authorities and the police have disappeared. I feel so good now, and I am only 43. Look at how well Mick Kinane rode when he was much older than that.”
     “I have not been wearing myself out in a championship battle, like Jamie Spencer and Seb Sanders did, and I never let myself go. This year I have been riding three or four lots a day for Sir Michael Stoute, and for other trainers. I like to keep busy and am always playing squash, tennis or golf, or cycling. I don’t have trouble with my weight – I could eat like a pig if I wanted to. I was at Santa Anita in 1996, and it was the best thing that happened to me, because I learned to ride to the clock. The weather is beautiful, the people are lovely, and most of the work is done at racing pace on the track. I have ridden two Breeders’ Cup winners in the US and I would love to ride here more often. I am enjoying life.”
     In July 2006, Fallon was banned from riding in Britain pending the hearing of charges of conspiracy to defraud which did not reach court until October 2007, and in November RW 2006, Fallon was suspended by the French authorities for six months after testing positive for a prohibited substance. In December 2007,