Kieren Fallon will be able to ride Yeats in the Melbourne Cup despite picking up a 10-day suspension in Australia on Saturday that had a local trainer fuming about the Irishman taking a "cheap shot".

Fallon won the Group Two Schweppes Stakes at Moonee Valley on California Dane but was suspended for causing interference to Red Oog soon after the start of the five-furlong race.

Initial reaction among locals was that Fallon would end up getting a much longer ban that would prevent him riding Yeats in next week's big race. However, a 10-day ban means he can return to action at midnight on the eve of the Cup.

However Red Oog's trainer was less than pleased at Fallon whose ability to create controversy appears to have survived the long journey Down Under.

"Kieren Fallon should go home," Joseph Pride told the Sydney Morning Herald. "It's a joke. He didn't even look. It was a cheap shot."

Fallon's reaction was delight at having won a valuable race on his extended stay in Australia and he added that he has been made feel welcome by the local riders in Victoria.

"I know most of them from travelling around the world and Damien Oliver has been good to me," Fallon said.

With Fallon away, Seamus Heffernan continues to make hay and he landed yesterday's Group One Criterium International at Saint-Cloud on board Mount Nelson.

The Aidan O'Brien-trained colt won his maiden at the Curragh just six days earlier but Mount Nelson graduated to the top class with a smooth defeat of Spirit One with the other Ballydoyle colt, Yellowstone (Colm O'Donoghue), back in third.