Drink, drugs and brawls – how Oisin Murphy's world came crashing down
Getting back on the horse is how it had always been for Murphy, who regularly returned to world-beating flat-jockey form regardless of crises in his personal life.
This time, in his darkest ordeal yet, he has taken that approach to extremes. He was riding within 36 hours of the car crash that left his girlfriend in hospital. His fifth winner at Royal Ascot last month would arrive the day after the prosecution summons landed on his doormat. Even as he arrived at Reading Magistrates' Court on Thursday, he was booked to fly out to ride in the Belmont Derby at Saratoga the following day.
Whether or not Murphy gets on that plane, however, there will be no shaking off the grim repercussions of this case. Evidence heard in court – that his girlfriend was left with a debilitating spinal injury after his reckless actions in her Mercedes A-Class – leaves one of the brightest talents of his sport facing down the barrel of a ban and possibly jail.
At Reading Magistrates' Court, Murphy pleaded guilty to drink driving, while his lawyer issued an apology for his 'grave error', as he was described as being 'just shy' of twice over the limit. Murphy was immediately fined £70,000 on the basis of his lucrative racing winnings and banned from driving for 20 months.
After a boozy Saturday night dinner party, Murphy lost control of Amy Fenelon's car before ploughing into a tree in Hermitage, Berkshire. Fenelon, in the passenger seat, required several nights in hospital. Police moved quickly to pursue charges after Murphy refused to provide a sample when initially under arrest.
The mood in racing is one of sadness rather than outright anger at Murphy, who has made no secret of his difficulties with drink. Riders are breathalysed in racing and Murphy had failed several in the past. He was given a 14-month ban on February 22 for breaking Covid rules and two alcohol breaches in 2022.
'When I was happy I would drink, when I was sad I would drink,' he had previously said. In 2022, he spoke of a fear blackouts over his boozing in the past could have ended his racing career.
But it is now at 29 - after receiving extensive counselling - that he now faces potentially losing his racing licence while at the peak of his powers in the sport. He was pushing Ryan Moore for the title 'best jockey in the world' - in the saddle he is that good; he is strong, tactically astute, a good judge of pace and, at Royal Ascot, he was the only jockey to push Moore (seven winners) for the leading jockey title.
His four jockeys' championships are one more than both Moore and Frankie Dettori who soon switched their focus from quantity to quality. In the winter of 2019-20 he rode a record number of winners for a foreign jockey in Japan and his first ride on dirt in America was a Breeders' Cup winner on a Japanese-trained horse.
He is the consummate horseman, as comfortable riding in a sprint as a long-distance flat race as he is over a 1.35m fence on a showjumper or over an even bigger hedge out hunting in Leicestershire. But away from the sport, life has been fraught with challenges from the outset. Born prematurely and weighing just 2lbs 14oz on arrival, his first few weeks were spent in intensive care at Killarney hospital.
'I probably should have died,' he told Horsepower, the 2022 Amazon Prime documentary series based around Andrew Balding's Kingsclere yard and the jockey. 'By the age of four I was normal enough to go to school.'
Too small and weak to be much good at any other sports he turned to ponies and, if he needed inspiration, he did not have to look too far; his uncle is Jim Culloty, the jump jockey who rode Best Mate to win three Gold Cups and Bindaree to win the Grand National.
'I wanted to ride every day,' he recalled of his Kerry childhood to Telegraph Sport once. 'But I wasn't big enough to reach up and tack the pony up on my own.'
Ultimately, however, he would have been good enough to make a career out of showjumping. As a teenager he was on a couple of Irish teams and at one stage he had a string of 12 jumping ponies but in 2012 he went to ride out for Aidan O'Brien at Ballydoyle and it had the effect of flicking a switch; it was goodbye showjumping, hello racing.
That coincided with the sale of his best pony and he elected to go down the racing route, although, in one enforced absence from the saddle, he spent a lot of time back in the showjumping ring.
O'Brien does not do apprentices, however, so he moved to Kingsclere where the Baldings run an 'unofficial' apprentice academy. In June 2013 he rode his first winner, Imperial Glance. 'Andrew told me two weeks before he'd win the race,' he recalls of the ride.
Apprentices come and go but he soon began to stand out and came to wider attention that September when he rode a four timer on Ayr Gold Cup day including the big race winner Highland Colori for Balding. The following season, 2014, he was champion apprentice.
He was soon appointed second jockey to Andrea Atzeni for Sheikh Fahad Al Thani's Qatar Racing and when Atzeni went back to Roger Varian in 2016, Murphy was promoted. He has remained first jockey for the outfit ever since with his most notable winners coming on Roaring Lion and Kameko although Sheikh Fahad has a much-reduced number of horses now which allows Murphy to ride as first jockey to Balding.
In 2019 he became champion jockey for the first time and followed it up in 2020, through the pandemic. However in the winter of 2020/21 came the first signal that it could all come crashing down. He had served a three-month ban after testing positive in France earlier in the year for a prohibited substance believed to be cocaine. It would normally have been twice as long but he successfully claimed it was a case of cross-contamination after having sex with a user.
Murphy would bounce back. He was champion again in 2021 but before regaining his title in 2024 came a further series of controversies. In December 2021, not long after winning his third title, he announced he would be standing down with immediate effect after the British Horseracing Authority brought a number of charges against him; for misleading its investigators in two instances, failing to comply with the country's Covid rules, two failed alcohol tests and 'acting in a manner prejudicial to the integrity and good reputation of the sport'.
One of his failed alcohol tests was at Newmarket in the autumn of 2021 after he had been involved in a pub brawl at The Yard in the town the night before. He was stood down for the day but, proving ice runs through his veins and that he is as effective in a tight spot as he is out of one, a day later gave Buzz a superb ride to win the Cesarewitch.
His licence was returned to him after serving what was effectively a 14-month ban but with conditions attached, including 'the need for Mr Murphy to remain sober and avoid the use of illicit drugs.'
Since he has been subjected to enhanced alcohol tests and providing hair samples for analysis at random times for the BHA and, voluntarily, he speaks to a therapist twice a week. He was also required to engage in regular contact with the BHA's chief medical adviser, Dr Jerry Hill. It is unclear if those exact conditions remain attached.
In their statement at the time the BHA said: 'If any of the conditions are not met, the BHA reserves the right to seek the suspension or the withdrawal of his licence.'
With that warning now coming back to haunt him, Murphy has more than just speed bumps to contend with: He may be running out of road.
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