Kieren Fallon rides in Britain for the first time in more than three years today when he rejoins the weighing-room colony at Lingfield Park. Fanfare will greet the six-time champion when he is legged up for the first of four booked mounts at the Surrey circuit.
Fallon's comeback has been portrayed as the Prodigal son's return, yet it is anything but. Since he last rode in Britain he has been charged and acquitted of race-fixing, and served two separate bans for failing drug tests. Down into the gutter with this high-profile rider went the good reputation of racing.
His return provokes as much anxiety with the authorities as it excites hard-core punters to whom Fallon has long been king. Not since the halcyon days of Lester Piggott has any jockey captivated minds and polarised opinions. Fallon's ruthless winning streak is matched only by a perverse inclination to self-destruct.
That Fallon returns at all attests to his resilience. In December 2007, when he stood outside the Old Bailey, his gaunt features belied the fact that he had just been declared innocent after years of police investigation.
That's because only Fallon knew that he had failed a post-race drugs test for the second time in 12 months. Few believed he could rebound from the latest in a series of self-inflicted reverses, yet here he is, eager to re-establish himself and anxious to regain the jockeys' title that he last won in 2003.
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From Fallon, 44, there is tacit acknowledgement of his dancing with the devil. “I think I'm going to look at it a little bit different now,” he said. “I think I appreciate the game more, appreciate the people I ride for. I took them for granted before.”
Demand for his combative riding style saw him work through three of the game's strongest stables in double-quick time. His split with Henry Cecil in 1999 saw him pick up with Sir Michael Stoute, who provides him with one ride at Kempton Park this evening, only for Ballydoyle to come calling in 2005.
Together with Stoute, the big yards of Ed Dunlop, Luca Cumani, William Haggas and Mick Channon have all engaged Fallon in the coming days. He remains in demand, his skills preserved in the balm of a rare instinct bestowed to him at birth.
However, riding winners is likely to be the least of his concerns. The biggest impediment to an Indian summer will be the recreational drugs - alcohol among them - that have obliged him to seek sanctuary in at least two clinics to date.
The real test of Fallon's rehabilitation starts today, when he rejoins a jockeys' treadmill that ultimately drove him to narcotic-induced release. As good as he looks on his diet of Newmarket morning gallops and games of squash, he has been free of the stresses that harshly self-critical jockeys such as Fallon create for themselves.
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Dean Gallagher's career mirrored Fallon's in that he, too, failed two drugs tests in the latter stages of his career. Ominously, Gallagher said on the second occasion in 2002: “It is well known that I have put a great deal of effort into my ongoing recovery, but life is not always as easy as it often appears.”
Heaven forbid that Fallon's remaining years should assume the course of Pat Valenzuela's ongoing career. An American jockey, Valenzuela is familiar in Britain for steering Arazi to victory at the 1999 Breeders' Cup. In reality, the jockey once tipped to dominate as has Fallon in Europe has served suspensions totalling seven years for drug-related offences.
It seems inconceivable that Fallon's imminent journey will take him to racing's downtrodden venues, as has happened to Valenzuela, who now plies his trade in Louisana. Yet Valenzuela's tale is salutary. When the authorities chose to test his hair to ensure the integrity of the sample, Valenzuela turned up the next day fully-shaven from head to toe.
To understand Fallon requires recognition that riding a winner - any winner - promotes a high the equal of any drug. Every race is a theoretical puzzle, a tactical battle of wits that unfolds at high speed and is settled in the blink of an eye. The adrenaline rush is immense - as is the come-down when winners run dry.
Fallon coped with these come-downs before he started attracting official scrutiny six years ago. The ensuing legal process meant that he stopped enjoying riding - and therefore stopped inhaling the smell of victory that sated his craving. Needless to say, the racing community is united in hope that these natural toxics are sufficient to becalm him.