NORTH Yorkshire racehorse trainer Jack Ramsden has described as "totally untrue" a claim that he had told champion jockey Kieren Fallon to stop a horse winning a race.

TV commentator Derek Thompson, of Channel 4, told the High Court last Friday that the jockey made the confession on the night of the Swaffham Handicap at Newmarket when the two met at nearby Old Plough pub.

Mr Thompson said: "I was asking 'What happened with Top Cees this afternoon as I thought he would win', and Kieren's words were 'Yes, I thought the horse would win as well but when I got into the paddock Jack told me to stop it'."

Mr Fallon denounced the claim as "a lie" and said neither Mr Ramsden nor his trainer wife, Lynda, had ever asked him to stop a horse.

Mr Ramsden, of Sand Hutton, near Thirsk, returned to the witness box yesterday and said he had been "horrified" by what Mr Thompson had alleged.

"The first thing I did was ring Mr Fallon to see if there was the remotest truth in it - I couldn't believe it.

"I was pretty appalled at someone suggesting anything like that." The Ramsdens and Mr Fallon are suing the Sporting Life newspaper over a "savage onslaught", in May 1995, the day after Top Cees won the Chester Cup.

The paper said they had conspired to deceive the racing public by deliberately not trying to win the Swaffham at Newmarket three weeks earlier.

Publishers MGN Ltd deny libel. They say the article is justified and fair comment on a "scandal" that was a matter of public interest.Counsel were due to make their closing speeches today.

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