Aussie given a grilling at Fallon trial

Mr Murrihy, the chief steward from New South Wales, had been asked by the prosecution in the £2million race-fixing trial to examine 27 races, 17 of which involved the six-times champion jockey.

One of the races Mr Kelsey-Fry invited Mr Murrihy to re-examine on a video shown to the jury involved the Queen's filly, Daring Aim, beating odds-on favourite Articulation at Newmarket on July 23, 2004.

While Murrihy commented "he couldn't say anything negative" about the ride, Mr Kelsey-Fry demanded a more positive response from a man who was called as an expert "to help the jury".

Kelsey-Fry asked: "In your 37 years of experience would you not concede that was an extraordinarily difficult ride? See the flashing tail? It's universally accepted as a sign of reluctance. See the reaction to the whip?"

Murrihy was reluctant to admit it was anything but a routine ride. He said: "I can't say anything negative — I use that as part of my Australian vocabulary as a steward.

"The flashing tail — you'd have to ask the individual horse. A horse might flick its tail for a number of reasons — there's a lot of reasons. I've seen some very good horses who give their tails a flick. I think it was a nice ride — I'm not going into raptures.

"He gave it one with the whip and got it to the line. As you'd expect of a good horseman, he persists. At the first flush it didn't strike me as one (ride) you'd put in the annals."

Earlier, Mr Murrihy was shown six examples of jockeys easing down prematurely in the final furlong and getting their horses beaten.

The jockeys concerned were found guilty of breaking Jockey Club Rule 156 for not obtaining the best possible placing and were suspended for between 14 and 28 days.

Mr Kelsey-Fry was using these examples to show that Fallon had been guilty of nothing more than the same offence when he was narrowly beaten on Ballinger Ridge at Lingfield on March 2, 2004. Mr Kelsey- Fry said: "These are all horrendous blunders by jockeys who had unassailable leads, aren't they?"

Murrihy: "They'd certainly have a case to answer. I've seen jockeys get to the line, grab up and get beaten deliberately."

Fallon, along with fellow jockeys Fergal Lynch and Darren Williams, Lynch's brother Shaun, Miles Rodgers and Philip Sherkle deny charges of defrauding Betfair customers. Rodgers also denies charges of concealing the proceeds of crime. The case continues.