Breached COVID-19, alcohol protocols
Oisin Murphy’s three-year reign as champion jockey came to an ignominious end in London on Tuesday when he was given a 14-month ban and a £31,111 fine for breaching a string of rules.
A three-person independent disciplinary panel of the British Horseracing Authority heard that Murphy had broken COVID-19 protocols, misled BHA officials and acted in a manner prejudicial to the proper integrity, conduct and good reputation of the sport.
The suspensions were backdated to December 8, when Murphy relinquished his licence. But it still means the 26-year-old will not ride on a racecourse again until February 16, 2023.
The chair of the panel, James O'Mahony, concluded after a hearing lasting more than five hours: “Oisin Murphy is a young man, a brilliant jockey, a super horseman and, with respect, both intelligent and articulate. We are not hear to criticise you for the sake of it but to explain our reasons and apply the rules.
“However, affected by fiction that you may have been, we conclude you thought you were above the rules and the law. And however high you are, you are not above them. They apply to all.”
The chain of events that led to Murphy finding himself sitting in the BHA’s High Holborn headquarters began on August 24, 2020, when the stewards at Ayr found him guilty of careless riding aboard maiden winner Tiritomba. He was banned from September 7 to 13 and, having rejected an initial notion that he should appeal, went for a short holiday in Mykinos.
While relaxing in the Greek island, Mykonos was moved onto the global pandemic Red List which meant that Murphy was obliged to self-isolate for 14 days on his return. The disciplinary panel heard he was aware of this requirement but instead resumed riding straight away.
During the two-week period when he should have been twiddling his thumbs, Murphy rode in 74 races and enjoyed 11 winners. He earned race-riding fees plus a proportion of the £311,000 prize-money that his mounts accrued. Jockeys receive about 7 per cent in win prize money, and 3 per cent in place prize money.
Those 11 winners were of huge significance as Murphy would go on to claim the Jockeys’ Championship by eight winners that year – beating William Buick 142-134.
O'Mahony observed: “There are no certainties involved in this but as a punter if you put money on William Buick to win championship, and he hears that Mr Murphy had no business to be riding during that period and getting winners, how’s he going to feel? And how good is that for racing?”
Rory Mac Niece, the solictitor representing Murphy, replied. “I can’t put myself into a punter’s mindset but I don’t think that any party can say the 2021 championship turned on that 14-day period. The punter may have lost his money anyway.”
The BHA were given an anonymous tip-off that Murphy had flouted the rules but when challenged by one of their officials, on September 17, he denied having ever visited the resort and instead said he was in Lake Como, which at the time was not on the Red List. He also gave several media interviews saying he was in Italy, including when riding a winner at Bath on his return.
Explaining how he came to be in Mykonos, and his subsequent deceit, Murphy said: “I spoke to my girlfriend at the time [of the ban] and she suggested that we go away. I thought ‘fantastic – where?’ Lake Como was suggested and then Mykonos. I knew some friends were going to be in Mykonos at that time - they were outside of racing and work in other sports - and so I thought ‘let's go there’.
“I remember some days before travelling there was talk that some countries were going on the Red List. It’s a bit jumbled going back this long ago but I knew when I stepped foot on that plane to Mykonos that I was going to be telling some people that I wasn't going there. I automatically was committing a lie.”
While away, Murphy did a blog for Sporting Life and said he was in Lake Como.
Murphy accepted his drinking had become a growing problem in recent years and spoke about the pressure he felt under and his reliance on alcohol as a coping mechanism.
Murphy spoke of his own father's battles with alcoholism as well as warnings in his formative years from his uncle Jim Culloty and first employer Aidan O'Brien as to the damaging impact of alcohol.
Murphy said a growing social life and regular commitments made alcohol ever-present. He spoke of how the pressures of his cocaine positive in France, his COVID-19-protocol violations and his alcohol positives in the UK, along with the daily grind of pursuing the jockeys' championship for four consecutive years, all contributed to him reaching a point where he was using alcohol to black out every night of Glorious Goodwood week and drinking vodka and lemonade in the car on the way home from Chelmsford before the incident at The Yard.
Speaking of the period he spent out of the sport when banned for his cocaine positive, Murphy said: "I was riding out in the morning and then drinking, I'd open a bottle of wine and almost always finish it. I had nothing to do and knew the BHA were on to me about Mykonos."
Once he had returned to race riding his drinking continued. "I would go home, watch replays alone, and drink a bottle of wine or some vodka," he said. "It suddenly dawned on me I had a reliance on alcohol. I felt it enabled me to mix with anyone socially, or to get to sleep at night. The Sunday after Goodwood I realized I'd blacked out every night. I knew it was an issue.
"In the evening I could be capable of drinking one glass of wine or 10, and it took me until then (the incident at The Yard and his breathalyser positive the following day) to realize my methods of dealing with pressure and reliance on alcohol. My drinking had become out of control. I have caused a great amount of damage to my reputation along the way.
"I couldn't undo the past and that initial lie led to all that deceit. Now I'm sober I don't think I would have made those mistakes. I can't go back in time but they were grave errors.
"I admit to all the breaches, I just wish I could have dealt with them better."
When delivering the verdict, O'Mahony said: "We conclude you thought you were above the rules, but they apply to all. You had to self-isolate, that's all you had to do, as others had to do. Yet you embarked on a prolonged deception. This was conduct, we're sorry to say, unworthy of a sportsman and a former champion."
Murphy, 26, surrendered his licence on Dec. 8, 2021 to focus on his rehabilitation and has not race ridden since.
