EPSOM last Sunday, and Quite Cheeky travels well down around the famous Tattenham Corner. Third of the five runners, along the inside, and in a nice racing rhythm under a motionless Cieren Fallon.

The rider eases him out off the rail as they race to the two-furlong marker and gives him a squeeze. Quite Cheeky moves up on the outside of the leader Sword Salute and goes forward. He is inexperienced, it’s only his second run, so his rider gives him the time to go find his range and click through the gears on Epsom’s unique cambers, while still getting him to continue his forward momentum.

It always looks like William Haggas’ horse is going to get there, and he does. He joins the leader at the furlong marker and goes on to win by almost two lengths. His rider eases down close home and allows himself a glance to his right.

“Quite Cheeky is a nice horse,” says Cieren Fallon now. “He did well to win on his racecourse debut two weeks ago. It’s unlike one of William’s to win first time out. He showed the benefit of that run on Sunday, he acted better around the track, and he won more convincingly in a better field.

“He’s going the right way, and it’s no harm that he has now won twice at Epsom.”

Interestingly, Dee Ex Bee won Sunday’s race in 2017, and Dee Ex Bee finished second in the Derby in 2018.

An hour and a half after he and Quite Cheeky have left Epsom’s winner’s enclosure, the stalls open at the 10-furlong start and Cieren Fallon sends Matins forward.

Best horse in the race, he keeps it simple, leads from flagfall. He sets even fractions, allows his horse flow down around Tattenham Corner, at ease and balanced. He starts to wind up on the run to the two-furlong marker and, very quickly, it is apparent that Matins has set up a race-winning advantage.

Cieren Fallon allows the Cheveley Park colt ease down close home and he wins by daylight. That’s three runs now for William Haggas’ horse, three wins.

The RaceiQ finishing speed par is 111.01% of overall speed. Matins clocks 111.41%.

“He did it nicely,” says the rider. “He took another step forward on Sunday and he learned a lot. He’s a smart horse.”

Busy times for the young rider. Redcar on Wednesday, Newmarket on Thursday, Haydock on Friday and Saturday, Epsom on Sunday.

Ride winners

It’s 215 miles from Redcar to Newmarket, it’s another 190 miles from Newmarket to Haydock and another 220 from Haydock to Epsom. You go where the rides are, you go where you think you will ride winners. You are in demand, you ride the wave.

Those two winners at Epsom on Sunday took his total number of winners for the season so far in Britain to 84, clear fourth in the jockeys’ championship, and that’s not by accident. He broke into the top four last year for the first time and he’s very happy to stay there.

The figures are important to him, the numbers by which you are measured. He got to 91 winners for the season in 2025 and, with a little bit of luck, he could beat that total this season.

He broke 100 winners for the calendar year last year, he got to 136. This year, he is already through the 100-winner mark and closing in on last year’s best-ever.

“It was great to finish fourth in the championship last year,” he says. “And it’s nice to be in the top four again this year. Prove that it wasn’t a fluke. I’m very lucky to be riding good horses for good people.”

It’s not only about the quantity though. At Goodwood in July, he won the Group 2 Lennox Stakes on Lake Forest. William Haggas’ horse was sent off as a short-priced favourite, a shade of odds-on, but it wasn’t an easy race to ride. The anticipated strong pace did not materialise, and that’s never easy when you’re on a hold-up horse.

You have to time your run from the rear, start your move early enough so that you can pick up the front runners, late enough so that you are not vulnerable to a sucker punch from something coming from behind.

Cieren Fallon judged it to a nicety, hit the front deep inside the final furlong, and had enough in reserve to get home by a neck from Rogue Diplomat.

“That was an important win,” says the rider. “It was great that I kept the ride on Lake Forest, I was really grateful to the owners and to William, so it was lovely to be able to repay them like that. It was great to win another big race too. Keep my name up there. He has been a very important horse for me.”

Remarkable performance

It was in November 2024 that Lake Forest and Cieren Fallon went to Australia, to Rosehill, and won the Golden Eagle, the Aus$10 million Golden Eagle, worth the equivalent of over €3 million to the winner. That was a remarkable performance and an outstanding ride.

Running to the home turn, only two of the 20 runners were behind them. He hugged the rail, went for the ground-saving route and trusted the gaps.

Turning for home, 400 metres to run, he was still only 12th or 13th with a bank of horses in front of him. Then he started to pick up, 200 metres out and he was through a gap and into ninth place. A 100 metres out and he was fifth. A gap opened on the rail and he dived for it.

It wasn’t until they hit the 50-metre mark and he was into fourth place, momentum up, that the commentator gave him a mention and, no sooner had he done so than the son of No Nay Never hit the line, a half a length in front of Lazzat.

“That was incredible. Really. One of my finest moments. To get the opportunity to ride him, in a race of that stature.”

There was a sting in the tail, because he received a hefty suspension and a significant fine, reduced by half on appeal, for allowing his horse move out from the rail inside the final 50 yards. It looked harsh.

“That took a bit of the gloss off it all right, it happened very late in the race and I did correct him, but it was such a valuable race, we were told that we needed to stick strictly to the rules.

“Even so, it was a real feather in my cap. It was on the other side of the world, but I have no doubt that that win opened up a lot of opportunities for me here afterwards.”

Emerging from the shadows

When you are the son of Kieren Fallon, six-time champion Kieren Fallon, winner of three Derbys and five 2000 Guineas and four 1000 Guineas and four Oaks and three Coronation Cups and three renewals of the Irish Champion Stakes, and all the rest, the expectation is that you will grow up to be a jockey. Anything else would be the cygnet who showed no real interest in growing up to be a swan.

And yet, for the first 17 years of Cieren Fallon’s life, horses didn’t feature. Not a jot. Living with his sisters and his mother Julie in Wigan, he played rugby league and rugby union, he played football and he ran. He ran for north Wales. He joined a Welsh football academy. Talent will poke its way through in whatever walk of life in which you find yourself.

He was good friends with David Egan then (still is), and he was just starting to get going as a jockey. That was the catalyst.

Find my own way

“I just rang my dad and told him that I wanted to give it a go!” he says. “I think that my dad was surprised, but he seemed to be happy about it, and he was very optimistic. My parents never forced me to go down any path. They left it up to me to find my own way. But as soon as Dad heard that I wanted to give it a go, he had me up on a horse straight away.”

He went to Newmarket and did a riders’ course in the British Racing School, a 14-week course for people who had basically never sat on a horse before. He obviously showed an aptitude for it, his talent poking its way through again.

It was on that British Racing School course that he first met Stefano Cherchi, who was tragically killed in a fall in Australia two and a half years ago. They hit it off straight away, and they grew even closer when Stefano started to go out with Cieren’s sister Brittany.

“We got on great from the start,” says Cieren. “He was a great guy and a proper horseman. We had similar personalities, that’s probably why we got on so well. We’d be in touch with each other nearly every day.”

He started going in to William Haggas’ after he finished his course.

“At the end of the course, we were assigned to trainers. Dad was riding out for Mr Haggas, so I gave him a ring and asked him if I could go there. He was very good to me from the start.”

He rode his first winner on his third ride, Plucky Dip for John Ryan in an apprentices’ hands-and-heels series handicap at Leicester in September 2018.

“John Ryan was always very good to my father,” says Cieren. “And I think that he took Plucky Dip out of retirement just so that he could give me a ride, so it was brilliant to win on him.

“He actually ran the following week too at Catterick, Laura Pearson rode him and won on him as well. He was her first winner too!”

He started rolling early in 2019. Two winners in February, two more in March, four in April, three in May.

“I was very happy to be getting a few rides, riding a few winners, getting to know the tracks, making my way gradually. I didn’t expect to be even in contention for the apprentices’ championship.”

He cut loose during the summer.

Champion apprentice

Based with William Haggas and under the direction of his agent at the time Phil Shea, who looked after Josephine Gordon when she won the apprentices’ title in 2016, he started notching up the winners. Sixteen in July, 11 in August, 15 more in September, and he was crowned champion apprentice at the end of the season.

He spent the winter in Florida with Christophe Clement, then came back to Britain and was champion apprentice again in 2020, the first person to win the British apprentices’ championship two years in a row since Gary Bardwell completed the feat in the late 1980s. The following winter, he went to Australia to work with David Hayes.

“It was brilliant to get the opportunity to go abroad and ride for different people. I learned so much during my time with Christophe Clement and David Hayes.

“They were both great to work for, both very different to each other.”

He was claiming 5lb when he rode Oxted for the first time for Roger Teal to finish second in a valuable handicap at Newmarket in August 2019.

His claim had been reduced to 3lb when he rode him next time a month later in the Portland Handicap at Doncaster, and he won that.

He was still claiming 3lb when Oxted ran for the first time in 2020 in the Group 3 Abernant Stakes at Newmarket the following June. That was the Covid year, the racing calendar was all over the place.

Of course, Group 3 race, he couldn’t use his claim, but Roger Teal retained faith in the young rider. That was his first Group race win. And then, just over a month later, back at Newmarket, Oxted again, July Cup, first Group 1.

A bit surreal

“That was amazing, my first Group 1. It was a bit surreal, there were no crowds at the races, but it didn’t make it any less important. It was Roger’s first Group 1 as well, so fair play to him for keeping me on him.”

Oxted provided him with his second Group 1 win too, when he landed the King’s Stand Stakes at Royal Ascot the following year.

He was appointed second jockey to Qatar Racing in 2020 and, when Oisin Murphy was sitting out his suspension in 2022, he rode as first jockey.

“It worked very well, me riding as Oisin’s back-up. I got to go around different trainers, riding lots of good horses. Then in 2022, Qatar didn’t really have a standout horse, and Sheikh Fahad was quietening down a little bit, so it made sense to go freelance.”

Strength to strength

With Chris Dixon now as his agent, he goes from strength to strength. He is riding good horses for good trainers. He rides out first lot at William Haggas’, second lot at James Owen’s, and then wherever he is needed after that. William Knight’s, Tom Clover’s, Ed Dunlop’s.

“,” he says. “William is great to me. Tom (Marquand) and I are good friends, we speak about every horse. Harry Davies is there as well, and Darragh Keenan. There’s a really good team of jockeys there. Chris Dixon does a brilliant job for me.

“I speak to Dad every day. He’ll talk me through my rides, what I did right, what I could have done differently. We play golf together. We play Padel. We’ll go through the form together before a big ride in a big race.”

There is another one of those this evening, Lake Forest in the Grade 1 Coolmore Turf Mile at Keeneland.

“He’s in great form and I think that the track will suit him.” Nine runners, eight of them trained in America. Lots to discuss.