Britain:Irish jockey Kieren Fallon told police he had never deliberately lost a race and the idea of doing it was like a plot from a Dick Francis novel, his race-fixing trial at the Old Bailey in London heard yesterday.
In police interviews read out in court yesterday, the six-time champion said he always put in the "extra measure" to win.
Mr Fallon told detectives it would be impossible to do so as "horses have minds of their own".
He admitted he had held up horses in the early part of a race so that they could come from the back to win. "If you go too fast too early you'll end up like Paula Radcliffe did in the Olympics," he told police.
Fallon (42) is one of six men who deny taking part in an alleged £2 million race-fixing conspiracy.
Asked by police about the practice of race-fixing he said: "It is impossible. Horses have minds of their own."
Det Const Matthew Hussey of City of London police asked if he ever deliberately lost a race on a horse. He replied "Never".
He was also asked if he knew of other jockeys talking about doing it. "If it was it was as a joke because it is impossible," he answered.
But later in the interview he said: "some have tried but have been caught."
The policeman asked him about his reputation for "getting the maximum out of a horse" and asked if he had a "degree of control" over his ride.
"Not really, no," Fallon said.
"If the horse wants to go as fast as it can, you couldn't slow it down?," he was asked.
"Well, you wouldn't want to slow it down, only to push," Fallon replied.
"Say if you wanted to lose a race?" "I wouldn't, it wouldn't come into my category of riding," he answered.
Fallon said he had never been asked to lose a race but had given tips.
Asked what he knew about the practice of "stopping a horse" he said he had read about it in "Dick Francis stories" and "Mickey Rooney films".
Fallon was asked by Det Const Hussey about the "extra measure" he was "renowned for putting into a race".
"I always put that in," he said.