Fallon Trial

The collapse of the race fixing trial cannot have been the most surprising news of the decade to those who have been following the case.

Having seen the “evidence” that was presented in court I have been at a loss to see how the case came to be prosecuted in the first place. The evidence was, at best, flimsy at worse unsubstantiated and circumstantial. The police surveillance operation looked like something organised by Inspector Clouseau rather than a competent force.

Whether it is a case of evidence being there and it not being presented due to police incompetence or whether the evidence was not there at all is immaterial. The accused have been told they have no case to answer and they are free men.

Now the case is over racing must face up to the implications. Not least the way Fallon was treated. There has always been a presumption of innocence under British law.

All three accused jockeys had their licences suspended, however in the cases of Lynch and Williams they were still given compensatory payments to cover the loss of earnings. In Fallon’s case, however, no compensation for loss of earnings was offered, the reason being he was licensed in Ireland, this seemed to ignore most of his earning came from this country. How is it possible for a man to be denied his livelihood when he has not been convicted of any offence?

It will be interesting to see what action, if any, Fallon takes against the racing authorities.

There will also be a large number of questions to be answered. The failure of this trial does not mean that racing is clean. There is corruption in racing, although it is not as bad as some would have you believe. Far too many punters look for an excuse when their horse fails to win and what easier excuse is there than to say the race was fixed. After all punters are so clever they always know what horse is going to win.

The danger is the failure of this case may well hinder future investigations into corruption.

The end of the trial almost certainly isn’t the end of the matter for the jockeys. Although the criminal charges were dropped, there were possible breaches of the rules of racing disclosed during the trial and these will be looked at by racing authorities.

The trial may be over but the story is not going to go away for a while yet.