Ahern can earn his spurs

Bans cost Ahern his century of winners last year

By Cornelius Lysaght BBC Sport racing correspondent

The rare appearance of snowflakes in my street in London has not been the only flurry to register on the radar these last few days.

There has also been a flurry of betting on the outcome of the Flat jockeys' championship, even though the stalls will not crash open on the new campaign until 22 March.

The popularity of last year's runner-up, Richard Hughes, the ever-reliable Seb Sanders, Kevin Darley and Darryll Holland - almost to the exclusion of reigning champion Kieren Fallon - has set tongues wagging.

There have been suggestions - though not a shred of evidence to support them - that Fallon might not be a runner in the race this time around.

Ahern has made a bigger impression than any other racing immigrant since perhaps Tony McCoy

Cornelius Lysaght

He is away at the moment, and uncontactable, so not in a position to put the record straight, or otherwise.

But the 37-year-old has been undisputed master of his profession for all but one, injury-hit season out of the last six.

And it is long odds on that all his Irish genius will be on show once again this summer.

All the same, this surely premature speculative punting still caused much consternation in my household.

Not because of Fallon's absence from the calculations, but because of someone else's surely perilous non-appearance.

Embarrassed Ahern hit by ban

Messrs Hughes, Sanders, Darley and Holland, and maybe Jamie Spencer, are all highly plausible heirs to the riding crown.

But I have to say that so too is Eddie Ahern, the new kid on the block, and he had miserably little mention in dispatches.

Having arrived in the UK from his native Ireland 12 months ago, Ahern, just recently 25, has made a bigger impression than any other racing immigrant since perhaps Tony McCoy.

Ahern is prospering on the all-weather this winter

The former Irish champion apprentice would have completed a century of winners for the year but for a variety of indiscretions that caught the eye of officialdom, leading to periods of suspension.

Initially, most of the successes came with horses under the care of Gerard Butler, a trainer as upwardly mobile as his jockey.

But now Ahern is in demand from a whole range of stables, and has even taken out a jumps licence with a view to riding in the Bumper race at the Cheltenham Festival.

Another brilliantly judged race at Lingfield last weekend, aboard a quirky Butler horse named Beauchamp Commander, demonstrated that eschewing warmer climes for the wintry all-weather circuit is certain to be lucrative.

From March, with the backing of Butler and others as well as extra efforts to satisfy the stewards, the industrious Ahern, with youth on his side, is sure to give his older rivals a run for their money.

But no one much is backing him to land the title - at 33/1 that seems batty to me.