Racing was delivered another body blow yesterday when it was alleged that champion Flat jockey Kieren Fallon stopped a horse from having a winning chance.

After recent police inquiries into doping and race-fixing, the sport's tarnished image took a further knock in the High Court in London when Channel 4 racing presenter, Derek Thompson, revealed that Fallon told him he was ordered to "stop" the fancied Top Cees in the Swaffham Handicap at Newmarket on April 15th, 1995.

Thompson was giving evidence after he was compelled to appear on behalf of the Sporting Life, which is fighting a libel action over "cheating" allegations brought by Fallon, trainer Lynda Ramsden and her husband Jack.

They are suing over a "savage verbal onslaught" in an unsigned editorial in May 1995, the day after Top Cees won the Chester Cup. It said the Ramsdens and Fallon conspired to deceive the racing public by deliberately not trying to win the Swaffham Handicap three weeks earlier.

Sporting Life publishers, Mirror Group Newspapers, deny libel. They say the article is justified and fair comment on a "scandal" that was a matter of public interest.

The newspaper's counsel, Richard Hartley QC - who had earlier said that his best evidence would be if he could produce someone who had overheard someone telling Fallon not to win at Newmarket - asked Thompson for his reaction to the result of the Swaffham Handicap.

Thompson, who was subpoenaed on his return from working in Dubai on Monday, said he felt that the horse "probably should have finished an awful lot closer with a more forceful ride, and probably should have won".

On the night after the race he was dining with friends at The Old Plough, near Newmarket, when he saw Fallon. He told Mr Justice Morland and the jury: "I don't want to repeat this in open court, which is why I've tried to stop it coming to open court, because it was said to me in confidence.

"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'."

Thompson said that he mentioned the conversation to a couple of people at the next morning's Channel 4 production meeting and suggested it might be worth interviewing Fallon, as Top Cees' failure to win was a major racing story.

"Kieren was obviously quite reluctant - he was being hounded by the press, if that's the right word, so I said `it will do you good to talk about it'.

"I did say that what was said last night in The Plough will not come out and I will look after you."

Patrick Milmo QC, for the Ramsdens and Fallon, opened his cross-examination by saying: "What you have just told the court about Kieren Fallon is an outrageous lie - that's right, is it not?"

Thompson replied: "If you think so, that's up to you. But no, it's not."

Milmo said Thompson was faced with telling the truth that nothing of consequence had happened which would show him up as telling stories, or of telling lies which would secure his position with Channel 4 but "would probably ruin the career of one of the best jockeys in England".

Thompson said that was a "totally ridiculous" statement. "I have the greatest respect for Kieren Fallon as one of the finest horsemen in the world and the last thing I want to do is to be sitting here."

The case continues on Monday.