The Irishman, who lost his title to Godolphin's Frankie Dettori this season, was scheduled to take up a retainer with Dhruba Selvaratnam's Jebel Ali Stables for the 2004-05 UAE racing season. But he was subsequently replaced by fellow Irishman Pat Smullen. Fallon was embroiled in the controversy after he appeared not to ride out his mount Ballinger Ridge to the finish in a race at Lingfield earlier this year.

Ballinger Ridge was narrowly beaten by Rye despite leading by a long way. This incident, coupled with the newspaper's claims and betting patterns initiated a major Jockey Club investigation. But yesterday, the Jockey Club said it would not pursue the issue of whether or not he had been party to bringing the sport into disrepute, Reuters reported. Jockey Club spokesman John Maxse said: "There can be no argument that the articles in question and the accompanying media coverage in general damaged the reputation of British racing.

"After reviewing the dossier handed over by the News of the World, it was considered that there was evidence to warrant holding an enquiry which would seek to establish whether or not Kieren Fallon was culpable for the ensuing negative coverage racing received."