KIEREN Fallon is spending time with his children in England this weekend as he waits on a hospital place becoming available in Ireland so he can begin treatment for depression.

The 51-year-old surprised the racing world this week by announcing his sudden retirement from the saddle. Speaking on Fallon’s behalf, Turf Club doctor Dr Adrian McGoldrick said: “Kieren is suffering from severe depression. When he came to me before getting his licence to ride this year it was clear he was suffering from depression and I treated him with anti-depressants.”

Fallon had been on the cusp of retiring then but had been convinced by Curragh trainer Michael O’Callaghan to become his stable jockey. They enjoyed a handful of winners together before Fallon had a fall on the gallops last week, which appears to have been the final straw.

O’Callaghan said yesterday: “I have been speaking to Kieren and he’s not too bad, his head is not completely on the floor. He is overwhelmed by all the support he has received, which has helped. I hope he will stay in racing and we would be delighted to keep him associated with our yard.”

Explaining the background to Fallon’s decision to retire, Dr McGoldrick said: “He rang me last week and said his situation had got worse. He told me he had lost the motivation to continue his riding career and wanted people to know about his decision to retire. He said it was time to move on once his depression has been managed.

PROFOUND FATIGUE

“In recent years he found himself suffering from profound fatigue but nothing physically wrong was found when doctors examined him.”

Dr McGoldrick continued: “We know that a lot of elite athletes have depression. I commissioned a survey in racing last year and 49% of jockeys in Ireland actually had symptoms of depression.”

Fallon moved back to Ireland this spring after more than a year in America. Up to last week he had ridden nine winners from 115 mounts. He has also had a handful of winners in the UK.

Originally from Clare, Fallon rode over 2,000 winners in his career. He started as an apprentice on the Curragh with Kevin Prendergast before moving to the north of England in 1982. Based with trainer Jimmy Fitzgerald, he slowly won admirers and came to prominence when landing some gambles for trainer Lynda Ramsden and her husband Jack in the early 1990s.

It was around this time also that Fallon developed a reputation as a fiery character. In 1994 he received a six-month ban for pulling another jockey off a horse.

Fallon’s career took a massive upward curve in 1997 when he joined Henry Cecil’s powerful Newmarket stable. The big winners soon flowed - the 1000 Guineas on Sleepytime and the Oaks on the top-class Reams Of Verse.

He was champion jockey that year with over 200 winners, but the partnership ended in 1999 and Fallon moved on to the Sir Michael Stoute yard.

A bad fall at Royal Ascot in 2000 left Fallon with a serious shoulder injury, which almost ended his career. But it was not long before major success again came his way aboard the Stoute-trained Golan and King’s Best in the 2000 Guineas, Kris Kin and North Light in the Derby and Russian Rhythm in the 1000 Guineas.

Even in these glory years Fallon was battling alcohol problems, which he admitted in 2003. That did not stop the Coolmore partners from signing him up in 2005 and within weeks Fallon completed the Newmarket Guineas double for his new employers with Footstepsinthesand and Virginia Waters.

The most dramatic year of his professional career came in 2007. The day after he won the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe with a nerveless ride on Aidan O’Brien’s Dylan Thomas, enduring an agonising wait to be confirmed the winner in a stewards’ inquiry, he was at the Old Bailey for the infamous ‘race-fixing’ trial.

And just as soon as the case against him and five others collapsed, Fallon was slapped with an 18-month ban for a positive drugs test when riding at Deauville that August.

It was not his first offence, either, with Fallon having previously served a six-month spell on the sidelines after testing positive, again in France, in 2006.

This second suspension inevitably ended his fruitful association with Coolmore, who had stood by him through his court troubles.

Fallon made a comeback in 2009 but, despite support from trainers Luca Cumani, Mark Johnston and others, he struggled to get himself on the best horses in the top races. Two Group 1 wins in 2012 - on Most Improved in the St James’s Palace Stakes and Society Rock in the Haydock Sprint Cup - stood out.

A chance ride on 40/1 shot Night Of Thunder in the 2000 Guineas two years ago gave him a final classic winner. Fallon struck up a brief partnership with Godolphin that spring but, despite a Royal Ascot winner that year, the relationship fizzled out and Fallon moved to America that autumn.