Published: 31/05/2018
'The most eagerly anticipated racing autobiography for many years' - Greg Wood, Guardian
Kieren Fallon was one of the world's greatest jockeys, but his career was littered with controversial incidents. Now, in his powerful and honest autobiography, he tells all.
British Champion Jockey six times - without terrifying injury and mental trauma it could have been many more - he won more than 2250 races, including the Derby three times, the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe twice, and more 2000 and 1000 Guineas (nine) than anyone else in the history of the sport. He was also accused of race fixing, resulting in an astonishing Old Bailey trial at which he was completely cleared.
No one would question his ability in the saddle. Few, if any, have ever been as good at coaxing the best out of their rides. But his extraordinary rapport with the horse has not quite been matched by his dealings with humans - particularly not those in authority with whom he's had a career-long battle.
Now Fallon recalls his rise from a rural Irish family with no racing connections, and his frequent collisions with the media as well as many of the people who run the sport. With wit as well as absolute frankness, he tells of the huge pressures on top jockeys - even those without his external problems - and how his dazzling riding career was marred, then brought to a premature halt by campaigns of lies and innuendo.
Brutally honest as well as entertaining, this is a unique sporting memoir.
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Ltd
ISBN: 9781471166549
Number of pages: 320
Weight: 256 g
Dimensions: 198 x 130 x 20 mm
MEDIA REVIEWS
'I've always been fascinated by Kieren Fallon; so talented and yet so damaged. So I was drawn like a moth to a flame to his recent autobiography Form. It doesn't disappoint... It has not been a life without conflict, but if you look into his haunted, hooded eyes, that does not come as a surprise. What is unexpected, however, is the insight that one gets through the Fallon prism.' - Charlie Brooks, Daily Telegraph
'This candid and rewarding book...career highlights are left to fight for whatever space remains after honest, expansive accounts of his various scandals... Fallon is certainly honest with himself, and that lifts Form out of the also-ran clutter of the genre and into the winner's enclosure... It's the account of a flawed individual who happens to be a genius at riding horses, as accessible as human nature itself, not simply the life story of a jockey... If it were fiction, it would be a proper page-turner, Dick Francis-esque in its delivery. The reality that this is fact, a life well lived if not always lived well, makes it even more compelling. This piece of Form is strong, solid, difficult to argue with.' - Steve Dennis, Racing Post
'His story gives us a graphic picture of the downside of racing at the highest level - the pressures, the `flipping' to keep to an unrealistic weight, the travelling grind...For me the best pages are those in which he describes his riding methods, how he used his legs and his body while others used the whip. His story of Kris Kin's Derby victory is riveting.' - Robin Oakley, Spectator
'Brutally candid' - Tom Richmond, Yorkshire Post
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