The reigning champion jockey, Oisin Murphy, who is serving a 14-month suspension from the saddle, has said he experienced alcohol-related blackouts during a period of heavy drinking that led to two breaches of the alcohol rules in 2021, including a failed pre-race breath test at Newmarket in October.
Speaking to BBC Sport, Murphy said: “When I was happy I would drink, when I was sad I would drink. I might last a week or sometimes a month [without alcohol] but it would spiral out of control again.”
Murphy was the leading jockey at Royal Ascot for the first time in 2021 and will be working at the meeting next week as a pundit for Sky Sports Racing.
He is suspended until February 2023 after he admitted a series of breaches of the alcohol regulations and a serious breach of the British Horseracing Authority’s Covid protocols in September 2020, when he misled the regulator about his location during a ban for whip offences. Murphy went on holiday to the Greek island of Mykonos, which was on the government’s Covid red list at the time, but tried to tell BHA officials that he had been at Lake Como in Italy.
A BHA spokesperson confirmed on Thursday that, as Murphy is not a disqualified person, he is free to take up media duties while suspended from riding.
Chepstow 1.00 Bbob Alula 1.35 Helm Rock 2.10 It's Chico Time 2.40 Some Nightmare 3.10 Privilege 3.45 Knightswood 4.20 Dundory (nb)
Sandown Park 1.10 Presidential Dance 1.45 One Nation 2.20 Liangel Hope 2.50 Belhaven 3.20 Enfranchise 3.55 Ar El Bee 4.25 Claritudo
York 2.00 Hotspur Harry 2.30 Teatime Tipple 3.00 Makarova (nap) 3.30 Brunch 4.05 Orbaan 4.40 Your Spirit 5.10 Charging Thunder
Newton Abbot 5.05 More Joy 5.41 Gibraltarian 6.16 Sweet Nightingale
6.51 Leapaway 7.26 Royal Plaza 8.01 Skatman 8.36 Mark The Man
Goodwood 5.15 Rage Of Bamby 5.49 Simply Sondheim 6.24 Ravens Ark
6.59 Woodlands Charm 7.34 Auntie Margaret 8.09 Maysong
Aintree 5.28 Pateen 6.03 Free Chakarte 6.38 Mortlach 7.13 Go On Chez
7.48 Hurricane Ali 8.23 Armattiekan 8.53 Taragrace
Detailing his struggles with alcohol last year, Murphy told the BBC that “by the time [the five-day] Goodwood [meeting] came around in August [2021], I had blacked out every night of that week. OK, I was probably blacking out very early in the evening, so I was fine the next morning, but I really couldn’t deal with the pressure and by the Breeders’ Cup in November, I was ready to stop riding.”
Murphy also told BBC Sport he is now sober and attending regular Alcoholics Anonymous meetings.
