Cases that could rock racing

The Jockey Club are cleaning house, and the smell wafting through racing is becoming hard to bear. Steered by an aggressive security chief in Paul Scotney and aided by a strong alliance with betting exchanges such as Betfair, the body responsible for fighting corruption in racing are preparing for the climax of a series of disciplinary hearings with huge implications for the sport's image.

Kieren Fallon, Fergal Lynch, Darren Williams and Karl Burke face an agonising wait until early November to find out whether they will face charges arising from a dawn swoop which saw them questioned by police over an alleged race-fixing spree involving more than 80 races.

However, verdicts in a string of separate but equally controversial cases are much nearer to hand.

The man who allegedly put the jump into jump jockey will hear his fate on Friday when Sean Fox faces the music over the Ice Saint incident, while Alan Berry and Steve O'Sullivan will be back at Portman Square next Tuesday for the conclusion of the Hillside Girl affair.

John Egan and Gary Carter are also in the queue for Jockey Club justice, and former star jump jockey Graham Bradley awaits the outcome of a High Court appeal against a five-year ban.

SEAN FOX: heads to Portman Square this Friday on a hiding to nothing after parting company with Ice Saint in a Fontwell novice chase which made national headlines in March. At best he will be found guilty of gross incompetence for falling off even though his mount seemed to jump the fence perfectly. And at worst he will be found guilty of cheating punters by deliberately jumping off a horse which took a walk in the market after Jockey Club officials were warned to keep an eye on its performance. Fox felt he was a victim of the fact that Ice Saint's race came just 24 hours after Kieren Fallon lost a race he should have won aboard Ballinger Ridge at Lingfield and argued that "they must be barmy if they think I'm going to jump off at 30mph". He faces a long ban in the worst case scenario, but a dearth of rides since the Fontwell incident suggests his career is effectively over anyway.

ALAN BERRY AND STEVE O'SULLIVAN: the idea that an experienced trainer would run a lame horse purely to make money backing it to lose is enough to make even the most cynical punter wince. Yet that is what Berry - along with his betting blacksmith-Steve O'Sullivan - are alleged to have done when Hillside Girl ran at Carlisle last summer. Exchange layers seemed prepared to lay her at any price and duly collected when the filly was pulled up badly lame. The incident came just 24 hours before an agreement allowing the Jockey Club to scrutinise exchange accounts came into force. Berry has protested his innocence, and O'Sullivan has kept a low profile while details of his hugely successful Betfair account have leaked out. A lengthy hearing reconvenes next Tuesday. Meanwhile, Berry has let out half his Lancashire yard to fellow trainer Paul Blockley and has reportedly made enquiries about property in Ireland.

KIEREN FALLON AND JOHN EGAN: Make no mistake, the News of the World were hoping to finish Fallon when they ran a five-page splash branding the Queen's jockey as "The Fixer" in February. The fallout from the sting operation, which also involved Egan, has left a cloud hanging over the Irishman's march towards a seventh championship, but reports of his demise have been exaggerated. Slowly yet surely, Fallon's solicitor Christopher Stewart-Moore has dissected the evidence to ensure the charges now relate only to bringing racing into disrepute. No date has been set, though a ban of weeks rather than months looks favourite if found guilty.