Fallon primed for Festival ride

Fallon now rides for the Coolmore team

Former champion Flat jockey Kieren Fallon has been granted a licence to ride in a race at National Hunt racing's Cheltenham Festival next week.

He is expected to take the Champion Bumper mount of Refinement, who is trained by Jonjo O'Neill and runs in the colours of owner Michael Tabor.

Fallon recently replaced Jamie Spencer at the Irish Ballydoyle stable.

Spencer, who won the Bumper on Pizarro in 2002, hopes to ride Buena Vista for champion trainer Martin Pipe.

The Bumper contest, which closes Wednesday's card, is the only one of 24 races at the new four-day Festival which does not require horses to jump hurdles or fences.

It is effectively a Flat race run under National Hunt rules, and is traditionally one of the week's biggest betting races.

Fallon was recently snapped up by the Coolmore team to ride all the horses owned by Tabor, John Magnier and Derrick Smith after Spencer quit the lucrative job.

He applied to the Jockey Club for a jumps licence that will restrict him to riding in National Hunt Flat races, similar to the licence granted to Michael Hills in 2003 when he rode Be Fair in the same race.