Sideline Cut: Maybe it's a good thing that one of the people on the board of Britain's Horseracing Regulatory Authority rejoices under the name of Ben Gunn. If the beleaguered former champion jockey Kieren Fallon is eventually cleared of involvement in the race-fixing crisis that has catapulted racing into the headlines in recent weeks it will be good for the powers that be to have someone familiar with a particularly remote cave. An awful lot of people have an awful lot to lose in this, and many of them don't ride horses for a living.
Fallon, however, does, and manages it better than most. Normally he would have spent the last week riding Group One bluebloods for Aidan O'Brien at Goodwood. But the HRA ban that prevents him riding in Britain until the conclusion of a criminal trial at the end of next year instead meant a re-route to the more raucous delights of Galway. On a number of occasions there were visits to the winners enclosure that made Cheltenham seem like a refined Cotswolds tea party.
For his part, Fallon presented a determined face to the staring world. But for someone whose career thrives on instinct and confidence, and whose every waking moment must, to various degrees, be consumed by this matter, the comparative inactivity of two or three ordinary rides a day must have been soul-destroying. Rilke believed a poet should have no fear of prison because it would allow time to explore the imagination. Which only proves that in some ways Rilke was an idiot. Too much time can confine just as much as too little. Especially when you feel wronged.
It's an undeniable fact the racing authorities in Britain are entitled to licence whoever they want or don't want. Protecting the sport's integrity has been the mantra throughout the original hearing, the appeal hearing and the subsequent British High Court case. And in racing, more than most other sports, the perception of how the game is policed is vitally important.
But in preventing the Irish jockey from riding in their jurisdiction, the HRA have backed themselves into a very tight corner. Quite simply, they have to be right about this or their credibility will be shot out of the water. No room to manoeuvre remains. They have made a point of going after one of the biggest names in the sport, who vehemently denies any wrongdoing, and if they are proved incorrect some very well bred posteriors will be left hanging out to dry.
Naturally enough, their resolute refusal to allow Fallon ride has left many presuming they must have something water-tight on him, or at the very least, a viable case to argue. But in a game where past performance is vital, the police in Britain have the sort of form that wouldn't encourage anyone to risk a brass farthing on them getting it right. Especially when so much of their case against Fallon and his co-accused seems to rely on the concept of "information".
Now, for those who want to believe the worst, and let's face it, there are plenty out there only too willing to believe the worst about jockeys, the supply of information takes on a mystique of sinister back-street meetings and furtive exchanges, complete with sombre James Mason-type voice-over. The reality is usually much more dull.
No jockey exists in a bubble, least of all one as high profile as Fallon. Everywhere he goes, there will always be someone who approaches him with the question probably most loathed by anyone with any sort of connection to racing: "Any tips?" The choice lies between telling people to eff off, which results in some very different social hassles, or quickly tell them you think such and such might win the first at Leopardstown and keep walking. But does that constitute "information"? If so where does that leave those jockeys, Fallon included, who have contracts with newspapers?
Fallon's confidence about George Washington before this year's 2,000 Guineas was contagious. Was that "information"? Does telling a pal he thinks Dettori or Kinane will win the next race mean he himself will be going out of his way not to win? Of course it doesn't, but even if the police believe it does, there is no way of proving some dark and devious plot unless some smoking gun shows up on paper or on tape. However, by the time that truth becomes apparent in court, it will probably be too late for Fallon.
One of the most noticeable features of the whole saga has been the position adopted by Coolmore Stud. John Magnier, a man who hasn't let his own posterior hang out since toilet training, and who normally reacts to bad publicity the way Zidane does to queries about his Mummy, has adopted an unusually hard-line position in support of his retained jockey.
Last weekend, Magnier's father-in-law, the legendary Vincent O'Brien, made a very public point of backing the rider. The current Ballydoyle supremo Aidan O'Brien has praised Fallon to such an extent, one began to think we were dealing with a mixture of Dr Dolittle and the Dalai Lama. Magnier himself has described the case as Alice In Wonderland stuff. But how long can such solidarity last? It's an undeniable fact that many of the top races Magnier & Co need to win in order to make stallions are in Britain. It just doesn't make sense for Fallon to mould and nurture these hugely valuable classic prospects at home in Ireland, or indeed in France, and then have someone different get on their backs at Newmarket or Epsom. Whatever about the finances, in a purely racing sense, it's not a runner.
Fallon's contract with Coolmore is up at the end of this season and he himself will have noted the significance during the week of how one firm of bookmakers has already started betting on his successor. As signs go, it ain't good. Rather like the first dorsal fin appearing on the horizon, complete with the first faint strains of cello music.
Currently the former Ballydoyle number one Michael Kinane and John Murtagh are sharing out the majority of Coolmore's runners in Britain, and the likelihood is Fallon will continue to ride for them at home until his contract is up. The quietly muttered consensus among most racing pros at Galway this week was the link will be quietly severed during the dark days of winter when everyone is focusing on steeplechase slogs in the mud.
Which would then present an interesting quandary for the HRA should Fallon be cleared of any conspiracy to defraud charges. If the case is a legal nightmare now, imagine how much of a minefield it might yet end up.
It could certainly be explosive enough for Ben to have a lot of company scanning the skyline for rescue ships.
