Quarantine nightmare for Cieren Fallon as The Lir Jet misses French Guineas

Cieren Fallon is going through the nightmare scenario of having spent the past four days in quarantine in a Paris hotel room to ride in Sunday’s French 2,000 Guineas only to hear on Wednesday morning that his intended mount The Lir Jet is out of the race.

The two-time champion apprentice is now waiting to hear whether he can fly back to Britain on Wednesday evening, but he has already missed high-profile rides at York's Dante meeting including Oxted, who finished in the Group 2 Duke of York Stakes.

Fallon, who is second jockey to The Lir Jet’s part-owners Qatar Racing, had flown out to France after riding at Lingfield last Saturday to spend seven days in a hotel room in keeping with local Covid-19 regulations in order to ride Michael Bell’s stable star at Longchamp.

Speaking from France, he said: “I only heard this morning that The Lir Jet wasn’t right and won’t now be running, which is a bit of a pain, but there’s nothing you can do.

"I've been stuck in this room since Saturday night and I’m now trying to sort out whether I can ride anything else at Paris on Sunday or book a flight back tonight.

"Obviously I’ve missed riding Oxted, which is a big shame. Hopefully I can get back on him at Royal Ascot.”

The Lir Jet (centre): set to target the Commonwealth Cup at Royal Ascot next monthCredit: Edward Whitaker

His boss William Haggas said: "It's a real shame for Cieren but he told me he was trying to get a flight back tonight. If he can he may well be able to ride here on Saturday, which is a busy day's racing."

David Redvers, racing manager for Qatar Racing, said: “Having discussed with Michael Bell and the team at RacehorseClub we have decided that the best route for The Lir Jet is to target the Commonwealth Cup at Royal Ascot on June 18 taking in the Sandy Lane at Haydock en route.

"As a result, he will not be declared for the French 2,000 Guineas this Sunday.”

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