RACING/News: Kieren Fallon has warned that he should not be written off in his bid to win the jockeys' championship for the fifth time following the news that he has lost the rides on horses owned by two of Michael Stoute's top patrons, Saeed Suhail and Maktoum Al Maktoum.
The jockey's price to become champion has been eased to 9 to 4 from 5 to 4 by Ladbrokes with Kevin Darley, who topped the table in 2000, the 4 to 7 favourite from even money.
Speaking at Haydock, where he completed a double on Medallist and Beauchamp Pilot, Fallon said: "I will still be in there fighting and riding the best I can for anyone who wants to put me up.
"I have always maintained that the only reason I have won the championship over the years is because I have a very good agent in David Pollington and I still maintain that - so if I don't win it again I will blame him!"
He went on: "As I was not going to be riding all Sir Michael Stoute's horses as I was last year, and as Gerard Butler has a stable jockey now, this year was always going to be a struggle anyway because Kevin has the all the ammunition in the north that he has always had - we will give it our best shot though."
Fallon does not bear any grudges over the decisions made by two of the country's major owners.
He said: "They have been very good to me, I have ridden a lot of good horses for them and won a lot of big races for them, we have been very successful together and I am very grateful to them.
"Unfortunately we were not firing this season at all and you can see their reason - someone else might be luckier for them." He added: "You have spells with trainers when you can do no wrong._ When I came over and rode for Eric Alston and Lynda and Jack Ramsden nearly everything I rode for them won.
"You get good runs and bad runs and unfortunately I am having a bad run at the moment - but it is early in the year you know." Medallist is owned and was bred by Cheveley Park Stud, whose managing director Chris Richardson gave Fallon a big vote of confidence.
He said: "We have been very satisfied with Kieren, he rode Medicean for us last year.
"We have our horses with 10 trainers so there is a lot of scope, we always use the best available, and if Kieren is available we would always want him to ride for us."
Tim Jones of Highclere Thoroughbred Racing added: "We've always used Kieren whenever he's been available and we are very happy to do so.
"With Michael Stoute we've got 10 in training for Highclere Thoroughbred Racing and we manage the Royal Ascot Racing Club's horses and we have one for them too.
"Kieren has always ridden for us when we could get him in the past but he's not the only one.
"We are happy to use the best available and Kieren certainly fits into that category."
Flat jockeys' championship betting: Ladbrokes: 4-7 Kevin Darley, 9-4 Kieren Fallon, 14-1 Jimmy Fortune, Jamie Spencer, 20-1 Pat Eddery, Richard Hughes, Richard Quinn, 25-1 Darryll Holland, 33-1 Frankie Dettori.
