Fallon marks return with a winner

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Kieren Fallon picked up a winner at Notthingham after returning from three days off with illness.

Fallon won the Eversheds Royal Standard Novice Stakes by a neck on 9-4 mount Public Forum.

That victory saw Fallon cut Frankie Dettori's lead in the standings to 18 wins but the Irishman has already conceded his hopes of retaining his title are virtually nil.

Dettori missed Thursday's meeting at Brighton but Fallon could not take advantage because the card was abandoned after one race because of high winds.

Brighton abandoned

That was yet another stroke of bad luck that the six-time champion jockey has suffered in the past couple of weeks.

He was already losing touch with Dettori when he suffered a fall at Leicester last Monday which kept him out of action until Friday.

Then he was ruled out of Sunday's meeting at Musselburgh after missing his plane and then missed three days after feeling unwell.

And Fallon has admitted that his hopes of retaining his title had disappeared.

"The title's gone, I know that, but we'll keep going because you never know," Fallon told the Sunday Times.