Racing: Fallon finds the balance to rekindle Olden Times

Kieren Fallon likes York and he likes Ascot, but Newmarket's July course is his favourite. The one at the bottom of the table, though, his Hades among tracks, is the one over which he triumphed yesterday.

Newmarket's Rowley Mile may be one of the oldest and historic strips of racing terrain, but to Fallon it is merely an unequal examination of the racehorse. The bushes can stay, according to the Irishman, but he would fill the dip in. Fallon would not disagree if you said he hated the Rowley Mile.

"I don't like this track," he said after Olden Times had won the Group Three Earl of Sefton Stakes. "It's very hard to get it right.

"Where the track runs downhill it encourages horses to switch on to a left lead. It gets them going towards the stands rail and it's hard to keep them balanced. The dip gets horses unbalanced and you never seem to meet it right, keep the momentum going. It causes a lot of problems for a lot of horses."

It was perhaps not the ideal venue or state of ground on which to return Olden Times, who cracked a pelvis after finishing third to Keltos and Noverre in Newbury's Lockinge Stakes last year. Only this morning's inspection will reveal the effect on his skeleton.

It has been a long and winding road back, and the first totally clear vets' bulletin came only at the beginning of February. Now we must see if Olden Times can mature into a good Sefton winner like Ela-Mana-Mou or Kalaglow. He moved well in behind the pacemaking Desert Deer and Potemkin yesterday until Fallon sent him down the middle of the track. The feet moved briskly as did his head, up in the air.

"He wasn't carrying his head until he started to run downhill," the jockey said. "Horses don't like going downhill. If you work a horse downhill he'll start backing off.

"My horse travelled great and went there and did it quite comfortably. Hopefully, he will go on now and show what a good horse he can be."

John Dunlop was quickly into his spiel about what a great stallion Olden Times would make. "He's a very, very good horse and the best-looking one you ever saw," the trainer said. "For a big horse he surprisingly loves that ground."

The story continues back in the Lockinge and then Royal Ascot's Queen Anne Stakes.

Some decent horses have emerged from yesterday's supposed 2,000 Guineas trial, the European Free Handicap, but they have to be tended to be animals dropped back to sprint distances such as Moorestyle and Green Desert.

Mystiko in 1991 was the last to go on to Classic success and 40-1 is available that Indian Haven, yesterday's winner, can interrupt that losing sequence. His was a victory for the paddock pickers, as Paul D'Arcy's substantial colt was the choice on looks, his chestnut hide shimmering with good health.

Tizzy May on the far rail and Membership, down the centre, led in the early stages, but led slowly and the Listed contest developed into a spurt over the last two furlongs. The final, and definitive, challenge came down the stands side from Indian Haven and John Egan.

This was the biggest training success for D'Arcy, a former work rider with Michael Stoute, who was given the occasional sweetener of a racecourse ride. D'Arcy did accumulate over 200 winners in the saddle and is up to about 40 with a training licence in his sixth season.

Since the end of March, D'Arcy has been based at the Green Ridge Stables in Newmarket, but has lived in the land of reality for a little longer. Indian Haven is as likely to run in the Italian Guineas as back here over Fallon's despised course.