The thinking ahead would serve him well and lead in turn to the conquering when it came to race riding. It would serve him better than almost anyone in history who'd ever picked up a whip. Put the whip away, though, and the skill of thinking two or three moves ahead has so often deserted him. The saddest truth now is that the decision over whether or not it's put away for good this time isn't his to make. Not completely anyway.

If he is to continue, it can only be with the continued backing of the men of Coolmore. And it must be said that when the news of his positive drugs test emerged on Wednesday, his career seemed doomed. Fallon, who had said in an interview in The Times of London the day before the Melbourne Cup that he was certain that failure to clear his name in the January appeal against the fraud charges he faces would almost certainly mean he'd have to retire on the basis that Ballydoyle couldn't wait for him forever, would not now be available to them until the Wednesday after the Epsom Derby. Coupled with the short, terse and noticeably inelaborate statement from Coolmore that night, it appeared certain that Fallon's career was finished.

For Coolmore to cut their ties with him almost doesn't bear thinking about for Fallon, assuming he is of a mind to keep riding. They have backed him to the tune of millions of euros in the course of his legal difficulties and were that support to be withdrawn, Fallon . . . who, on top of everything else, has gone through a messy divorce over the past year . . .

would be in even deeper trouble than he is now. And when the BBC's respected racing commentator Cornelius Lysaght revealed on Thursday afternoon that a source close to Coolmore racing had told him that the partnership of John Magnier, Derrick Smith and Michael Tabor were "very disappointed" in Fallon, the worst was feared. "Having supported him strongly, they do see it as a serious kick in the teeth, " said the source.

Hope for Fallon's salvation arrived late on Thursday night, however, when Tabor came out strongly in defence of the man Coolmore are reputed to employ on a £1m-a-year retainer.

"We remain very supportive of Kieren, " he said. "We always have been, and we still are. Obviously people are talking, everyone seems to have a point of view, but I can assure you we are unanimous.

Nothing has changed. We just have to get on with it. For me, he's the best around. I just hope he is able to stay around. Only time will tell."

Speaking from Miami, Tabor conceded that the situation was grave and that Fallon was miserable over it. "But now is the time to be resilient, " he said.

"When things go wrong, that's when you have to show strength, to keep on the straight and narrow. He's over 21, like all of us. We all have to take responsibility for our actions.

The next few months will tell us a lot more, but we are all still with him.

We feel very sympathetic. If we didn't, it would be over. But we do, and that's the beginning and the end of it."

Cosmetically at least, then, Fallon appears to have been given the green light to continue riding. What it boils down to now is whether or not he wants to do so. In truth, even though plenty will see the ban as a final straw, it doesn't have to be. In the general scheme of things, a six-month ban is a piffling enough matter.

He has always claimed that the conspiracy to defraud charges against him are preposterous and if that is proven to be the case at his January appeal, suddenly June might not seem so very far away.

True, it will mean missing the spring classics but for a man who, all things being equal, could have another half-decade at least to put down in the weighing room, there will be more big races.

That's the rub, though. Are all things equal with him these days? Or, put more pointedly, are all things in equilibrium?

When a recovering alcoholic is found with cocaine in his system, alarm bells as to his state of mind must naturally begin to ring. The 12 steps don't come with a footnote, after all. In his defence, it should be pointed out that when he was tested in Melbourne in October, his sample came back perfectly clean.

For now, it appears that he intends to return when he can. His solicitor said on Thursday that while Fallon accepts the ban, it won't mean a finish to his days in the saddle. "Kieren fully intends to be back, " said Christopher Stewart-Moore.

"He certainly doesn't regard this as the end of his career."

His brief says he will return and his employers have pledged to support him.

All that's left is for the boy sitting over the chessboard to make his next move.