LONDON, Sept 2: Champion jockey Kieren Fallon and colleagues Fergal Lynch and Darren Williams were back in action on Thursday after their arrests over allegations of race-fixing.

The trio were bailed on Wednesday until Nov 2 after being questioned by police in connection with "conspiracy to defraud". Fallon failed to win in his five rides at Salisbury but was cheered by the crowd when leaving the weighing room for his first mount, flanked by security guards.

"To say I was surprised at the events that unfolded is putting it mildly," Fallon was quoted as saying by the BBC, the first time he has spoken about his arrest. Lynch won one of his races at Red car while Williams only just missed out on victory at Carlisle on a horse trained by Karl Burke, who was also arrested on Wednesday as part of the probe.

The Jockey Club's public relations director John Maxse earlier told the Racing Post he anticipated the three jockeys would be able to continue riding pending further developments in the police investigation.

On Wednesday more than 130 police officers raided 19 addresses across the country and arrested 16 people, including the three jockeys and Burke. All 16 have now been bailed, police said on Thursday.

The allegations of corruption and fixing involve more than 80 races over the last two years. The 16 arrested included at least eight from Yorkshire in northern England. Fallon, three times winner of the Epsom Derby with Oath (1999), Kris Kin (2003) and North Light this year, is by far the biggest name.

His solicitor Christopher Stewart-Moore said on Wednesday night they did not anticipate the police taking the matter any further. Irishman Fallon, 39, was banned for 21 days in March for easing down too soon on a horse in a race in Ling field and still faces a Jockey Club disciplinary hearing on a disrepute charge stemming from allegations in a Sunday newspaper. -Reuters