Many questions must be asked of the sport’s regulators after the abrupt collapse of the race-fixing trial involving Kieren Fallon and five other men yesterday. The board of the British Horse-racing Authority (BHA) is to meet on Monday and it will be a surprise if there are no top-level casualties.

Paul Scotney, the director of security, will find critical attention focused on him. It was his decision to hand over this inquiry to the City of London Police, three years ago, and he may also be asked to explain allegations made about him in court, notably that he publicly and drunkenly promised to “get Kieren Fallon”.

That Scotney is now under duress is deeply ironic. This business started, four years ago, with the lampooning by Panorama of the Jockey Club and its previous head of security, Jeremy Phipps. It ends here, with the new regulator and its beefed-up security department embarrassed once more.

It was entirely right that the authority sought to take a stronger line on integrity and it has had some notable successes. But, in taking on a case concerning one of racing’s few genuine heroes, it needed a great deal more evidence than that which was so summarily dismissed by Mr Justice Forbes.

However hard it may try to disclaim responsibility, the BHA and its predecessor body must be thought at least partly accountable for the recruitment of an Australian, Ray Murrihy, with no proper knowledge of the British jurisdiction, as the only expert witness. It was this act, finally, which brought the case to its knees yesterday.

Even before that, however, the BHA had been implicated in matters such as an inappropriate offer of employment to one of the senior police officers in the case, Detective Inspector Mark Manning, and in the accusation that it agreed to help meet the spiralling costs of the investigation - estimated by Fallon’s legal team to have reached £10 million.

In the media mêlée outside the Old Bailey, it was left to the public relations manager, Paul Struthers, to mount a defence of the BHA, which declined to make any senior figure available. Only in part can this be forgiven by recent reorganisation that has brought in a new chairman and chief executive.

Struthers did his best to defuse one combustible subject by denying that any promise of funding for the case had been made to the police. “There may well have been discussions but it was never agreed, never promised. Our position is categorical,” he said.

Feathers may fly between the BHA and the police on this matter, which, in itself, if proven, had the capacity to halt the trial as an abuse of process. The BHA board, meanwhile, will be anxious to clarify its own position, as any obligation to pay even a proportion of the costs would go some way towards bankrupting an already precarious sport.

Nor is this the only financial threat. Coolmore, the powerful Irish employers of Fallon, have bankrolled his defence and may now be inclined to sue for its repayment. It is also understood that actions against the BHA for loss of earnings, by Fallon and Coolmore, are being considered.

On the potential employment of Det. Insp. Manning, Struthers admitted: “Mark Manning has been offered a job. There was a vacancy in the security department but his first expression of interest was in March of this year, long after the investigation was complete.”

This will not satisfy everyone of the propriety of such a job offer at such a sensitive time, with all its potential for conflicts of interest. As the BHA has been at pains to distance itself from the inquiry since handing it over to the police, this may be seen as a howling contradiction.

It also beggars belief that the employment of Murrihy as expert witness went unchallenged by the racing authorities - unless, that is, all possible British equivalents had already rejected the role. Murrihy conceded in court that he is “not an expert in UK racing”, a remark the judge deemed “an extraordinary admission”. The prosecution case, which depended unhealthily on his testimony, was doomed from that point on.

The BHA said yesterday that Fallon is now free to ride in Britain again, and that Fergal Lynch and Darren Williams, who left the court close to tears, can reapply for their licences.

But it did not leave the matter there. In a statement, the authority said it will “review all the available evidence” to determine any breaches of the Rules of Racing by the three jockeys. Given the comprehensive nature of the acquittal, and the fallout that is bound to descend, it would be small-minded and counter-productive to pursue Fallon further.

Six and out

Some of the probable rides that Kieren Fallon has missed.

Sep 23, 2006: Queen Elizabeth II Stakes at Ascot
Mick Kinane steps in to steer the enigmatic George Washington to victory.

June 19, 2007: St James’s Palace Stakes at Ascot
Jamie Spencer triumphs with a daring late challenge aboard Excellent Art.

June 21, 2007: Gold Cup at Ascot
Kinane is the beneficiary again as Yeats lights up the royal meeting.

July 28, 2007: King George VI And Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot
Dylan Thomas romps home by four lengths under Johnny Murtagh.

Aug 4, 2007: Nassau Stakes at Goodwood
Murtagh is the main man again, this time securing victory on Peeping Fawn.

Aug 22, 2007: Darley Yorkshire Oaks
Peeping Fawn was sent off 4-9 and easily justified the support for Murtagh.