Fallon’s delight as son Cieren shines
SIX-TIME champion jockey Kieren Fallon has admitted he is surprised how quickly his son Cieren has progressed this season.
Fallon Jnr is leading the race to be champion Flat apprentice jockey with 38 wins, three clear of Sean Davis. But it is less than a year since Cieren, who is based with Newmarket trainer William Haggas, recorded his first winner. Father Kieren said: ‘I am surprised how well he is doing.
‘He is doing everything right and improving all the time.
‘I spoke to Mr Haggas at the start of the year and he wanted him to learn his trade and build it up like that rather than win on steering jobs for him. You don’t learn like that and waste your claim.’
Like his father, 20-year-old Cieren, who grew up with mother Julie in Wigan, was a late- starter. He had shown no interest in racing but suddenly decided he wanted to be a jockey. Kieren added: ‘When he told me I thought it was just a phase and that he had just got crushed in one of those stupid rugby league games he loved. I used to hate watching him because he was so tiny compared to the big guys.
‘But he seems to have it. I never pushed him, I let him do his own thing and he found his own way like I did. He is not wild like I was, he is very sensible.’
Both Fallons rode on the same card at Doncaster yesterday but success eluded father and son.
Cieren finished fourth on both of his mounts while, out of retirement, his father was fourth on Kilbaha Lady in the Mondialiste Leger Legends Stakes, won by Dubai Acclaim and Sammy Jo Bell.
Meanwhile, Robert Winston, Flat apprentice champion in 1999, has retired. The 39-year- old rode 1,627 winners in a 23-year career. Jump jockey Tom Scudamore faces a spell on the sidelines after breaking a wrist in a fall at Worcester on Tuesday.