England’s six-time riding champion, jockey Kieren Fallon, returns to racing today after an 18-month ban for drug abuse.
Fallon, the bad boy of English racing, acknowledges it is “my last shot.” England’s The Independent put it eloquently, racing writer Steve Richards saying,
“admiration for his riding, and regard for his fortitude, ensure the sport will salute his return to a British racecourse but no flashbulbs, no snap judgment, can disclose a man whose strengths and frailties are woven in the complexity of genius.
At 44, one of the great jockeys returns in the knowledge that his pomp has been squandered through ill luck and worse judgment. No cat has ever consumed eight lives quite so unequivocally.”
(With files from Harness Tracks of America)