DISGRACED champion jockey Oisin Murphy has admitted he drank so much he would regularly black out and knocked back booze ‘every day’.
Murphy, 26, was given a massive 14-month ban and fined more than £30,000 for two alcohol breaches and breaking Covid rules last February.
The three-time champion Flat jockey cannot race again until February of next year.
In an interview with the BBC, Murphy, who also banned after testing positive for cocaine in November 2020, laid bare the extent of his drinking.
He admitted he ‘spiralled out of control’ and would ‘black out every night’ – even during big meetings.
Murphy said: “When I was happy I would drink, when I was sad I would drink.
“I put a lot of pressure on myself to achieve results, but I dealt with that pressure entirely in the wrong way.
“I might last a week or sometimes a month [without drink] but it would spiral out of control again.
“By the time Goodwood 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.
“Whether I rode well or poorly that day, whether I had winners or no winners, I dealt with it the same way – I got in the car with my driver and I started drinking.
“I had no set plan as to what would be my last drink that evening.”
Murphy admitted to being ‘filled with embarrassment’ after the British Horseracing Authority was tipped off to breathalyse him at Newmarket last October – the day after he was at the centre of an alleged booze-fuelled bust-up in a pub.
That second failed test told him he needed help and he has since been receiving treatment with Alcoholics Anonymous.
Murphy voluntarily gave up his jockey licence – but knew he had finally hit ‘rock bottom’.
His booze nightmare coincided with being found guilty of lying to the BHA over his whereabouts when on holiday.
Murphy said he had gone to Lake Como in Italy in September 2020 when he was actually on the Greek island of Mykonos – then on the Covid red travel list.
The jockey said: “When I booked the holiday it wasn’t on the red list, and when it went on the red list I should have immediately changed my plans. Unfortunately I didn’t.
“I told the BHA I had gone to Lake Como and they had been informed I had been to Mykonos. Over the coming months they asked for my bank records and phone records, which they are entitled to do. And I had to put my hands up and tell them that I had not told the truth.
“I made a massive mistake and I am suffering from the consequences of that now.”
Did you miss our previous article…
https://www.sportingexcitement.com/horse-racing/im-not-being-arrogant-he-could-win-eased-down-australian-wonderhose-backed-to-smash-10million-mark-at-royal-ascot/
