Fallon and Dettori at Musselburgh

FORMER champion jockeys Frankie Dettori and Kieren Fallon, still two of the biggest draws in racing, are scheduled to appear at Musselburgh on Easter Sunday as Scotland’s ushers in its first flat meeting of the season.

Between them, Dettori and Fallon have nine riders’ championships, and the two have both publicly stated their intention to go all out for formidable tallies this season as they battle it out with the current holder of the Flat crown, Ryan Moore.

Dettori hasn’t ridden at Musselburgh since Easter 2007, while Fallon is determined to make every race count following his enforced holiday due to an 18-month ban which ended last September. He too has opted to travel north to the East Lothian course for the UK’s only Flat meeting on Sunday.

The pair will be joined by leading northern jockey Paul Hanagan, who rode 119 winners last year and has got his 2010 campaign off to a flying start, supported by the firepower of Richard Fahey’s shrewd stable.

Musselburgh’s general manager, Bill Farnsworth, is delighted to attract the cream of the crop of UK jockeys for the opening meeting of the season.

“It’s a great way to start the flat season in Scotland and will give our race goers an up-close view of who will be contending the championship six months down the line,” he said.

“Dettori is a crowd pleaser wherever he goes, Fallon is still a force to be reckoned with and Hanagan is one of the brightest prospects in UK racing, so the stage is set for a wonderful day’s racing.

“We had a challenging time over the winter which caused a number of cancelled meeting but we are raring to go and have some real high quality fixtures in the coming months, including the 50,000 Scottish Sprint Cup and the 80,000 totepool Edinburgh Cup, both on 5 June.”

Feature race of the seven-event card is the 20,000 totesuper7 Musselburgh Gold Cup handicap over one mile, six furlongs.

At blustery Folkestone yesterday, trainer John Jenkins turned to three leading jockeys to inspire a 34-1 treble. Ryan Moore enjoyed an armchair ride on Caramelita (evens), Richard Hughes pulled off a big morning gamble for the stable on Love You Louis (5-2) while Spitfire (4-1) and Kieren Fallon took full advantage of a flag start when a 25-minute delay led to the stalls being bypassed.