Racing: No early luck for Fallon the freelance

SURELY EVENTS at Ripon had not came under such scrutiny since Wilfrid, abbot of the local monastery, caused a stir in the year 664 by demanding, and getting, changes to the date of Easter.

Yesterday afternoon, however, the focus was on matters more temporal as Kieren Fallon, with the door of Warren Place now firmly slammed behind him, turned up for two rides at the Yorkshire course on the first day of his suddenly- acquired status as a freelance.

And although the first, Water Echo for Sir Michael Stoute, may have been a portent of the future, the champion jockey was unable cement any putative partnership with a winner as even his considerable talents as a rider could not get the filly closer than third.

Fallon occupied the same place on the John Hill-trained Time Mill in the following race. It was not his fault that the colt hung left and veered across the width of the track in the closing stages but it was perhaps ironic that he was, however involuntarily, steering a course as far away as possible from the Henry Cecil runner, Galette.

Whatever the private shortcomings of the players involved in the racing soap opera that has been so luridly featured in a Sunday tabloid, they are, and will remain, among the sport's sought-after professionals. Fallon is likely to replace Gary Stevens on Stoute's horses and Cecil will continue to be patronised by the top owners. His second wife, Natalie, may have been the catalyst when he lost Sheikh Mohammed but this time round the Saudi Arabian bloc, headed by Prince Khaled Abdullah, will not be taking any horses away. ``Certainly not, '' said spokesman, Teddy Beckett, ``it's never even been discussed.''

Fallon's next venture into the spotlight that shows his best side comes on Saturday, when he is due to renew his partnership with one of the ante- post favourites, Grangeville, in Europe's most valuable seven-furlong handicap, the Tote International Stakes at Ascot.

All the fancied horses for the pounds 150,000 contest stood their ground at the five-day stage yesterday, when 38 were declared. Grangeville, winner of the Bunbury Cup at Newmarket last month, is an intended runner, as is another 10-1 shot, Tajasur, the merit of whose latest win at Newbury was underlined when his immediate victim, Harmonic Way, scooted home in the Stewards' Cup on Saturday.

The presence of the third market leader, Sunstreak, has yet to be confirmed. The four-year-old has alternative engagements on the Continent and in Ireland. ``He's very well and the prize is very tempting indeed,'' said trainer Chris Wall, ``but we'll see where we stand with the others and won't decide until we have to.''

John Gosden may hold the key to some running plans through his top-weight Russian Revival, whose withdrawal would lead to a 4lb rise in the weights. The versatile, classy six-year-old, runner-up in the Cork and Orrery Stakes over six furlongs of Saturday's course, is also entered at Deauville on Sunday.

Both Sunstreak and Tajasur skipped the lure of Goodwood in favour of a tilt at a pot this weekend, but one who may try for both is Swallow Flight, a fast-finishing runner-up in the William Hill Mile in Sussex last week. ``He has come out of that race fine,'' said Geoff Wragg of the three-year-old, ``and though it's a drop down in distance it's a stiff seven at Ascot.''

The cosmopolitan title of the race may be justified in its second running by the presence of three overseas runners, one from Ireland and two from France, both of whom can, unusually in a British handicap, run from their local mark. The best-rated of the pair is Bartex, trained by Tony Clout at Chantilly and used as lead horse for Japanese star El Condor Pasa, currently based in Europe en route to the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe.