Fallon quits in battle with depression
THe colourful career of jockey Kieren Fallon has come to an end with an admission the six-time champion jockey is suffering from ‘significant depression’.
The Irish Turf Club’s chief medical officer, Dr Adrian McGoldrick, revealed the 51-year-old’s decision. He said the depression was likely to date back to the 2007 Old Bailey court case when Fallon faced race-fixing charges in a high-profile case which sensationally collapsed.
Immediately afterwards, it was revealed Fallon had tested positive for cocaine for a second time while riding in France and he was banned for 18 months.
Fallon has been riding in Ireland this season for trainer Michael O’Callaghan, securing nine wins from 115 outings. The position had seemed a way back into the sport for a rider who spent 2015 doing track work in the US without being able to secure many race rides.
Fallon’s last ride will now go down as his unplaced effort on Magical Fire in the Group Three Grangecon Stud Stakes at the Curragh on June 26.
McGoldrick said: ‘He kept going but over the last three years has had significant depressive symptoms. We are trying to get him better and get him to hospital to get him treated. Kieren reckons it dates back to the court case when he was broke, financially and psychologically.
‘He was very open with me. At the beginning of the season, I started him on antidepressants but it has got worse. At this stage, he needs admission for management of it. He can’t even speak to the AYR media himself. That is why he has asked me to do it on his behalf.
‘Hopefully, in a few weeks he will be a lot stronger and he can start to move on with his life. I am hopeful you will see the Kieren of six or seven years ago, when he was riding at his best. The person Kieren is now is not what you saw in his heyday. His self-esteem and motivation have gone — it is classical of significant depression.
‘He is emphatic he has retired from the saddle and he will move on to the next stage of his career, which will probably be in racing. He would like to move back to his family in england. He needs our support.’
As well as the drugs bans and court case, Fallon had a number of run-ins with the racing authorities but the massive bumps in the road that would have derailed most careers were overcome because of his massive talent.
Fallon had a unique style which transported him from a jockey plying his trade on the northern Flat racing circuit to the job of stable jockey to Aidan O’Brien, Sir Henry Cecil and Sir Michael Stoute, who booked him for unplaced Across The Stars in last month’s Derby.
Those jobs enabled him to win the Derby three times and the Arc twice. At his best, he was a daring individualist, but his finger often seemed poised above the self-destruct button.
He was never going to exit quietly, but this is not how he would have wished it to end. Can Twilight Son win July Cup? www.dailymail.co.uk/sport