Oisin Murphy will be unable to ride until early 2023 after being handed a 14-month ban for breaching Covid-19 regulations and failing two breath tests.
The three-time champion jockey will be ineligible to reapply for his riding licence for 11 months after admitting to breaking Covid regulations, misleading the BHA and prejudicial conduct.
He has been given an additional 100 days for alcohol breaches after two racecourse incidents during 2021, including failing a breathalyser test at Newmarket in October last year.
Murphy relinquished his riding licence last year in order to focus on his rehabilitation after a breach of coronavirus protocols.
The cases were heard simultaneously by a three-person panel, chaired by James O’Mahony in the presence of Rachel Spearing and Anthony Connell, with the charges combined after Murphy’s legal team applied for an extension in December.
The panel outlined a timeline of events from when Murphy went on holiday on September 9, 2020 to September 19.
Murphy had gone to the Greek island of Mykonos, which was on the Covid red-list at the time, but he had attempted to convince officials he had been at Lake Como.
His ban has been backdated to December 8, 2021, with the fact he currently does not have a licence meaning Murphy could be suspended so the panel opted to declare him ineligible to reapply for the enforced time period.
Murphy told the panel: “Some jockeys deal with things by going home and playing the Playstation, I go home, watch all the replays, scrutinise everything and drink a bottle of wine or a bottle of vodka.
“I get up the next morning and ride out and no one really knew anything about it.
“Coming back from Chelmsford, it was only a short journey but I’d started pouring Vodka-Lemonades before a friend’s dinner party. A lot of racing people were there.
“I managed to switch my mind off from racing, I don’t know how much wine I drank, but it was enough. I remember agreeing to go to the Yard [pub] but I don’t remember being there at all.
“When I woke up I realised I had light weights and I got in the bath and sweated for an hour. My friends started messaging me saying I’d done this and done that, some of it true, some of it untrue.
“All of a sudden the panic set in. I knew I was out of control, I never drank on the way to the races, but in the evening, I was capable of drinking one glass of wine, or ten and not knowing the next morning what I had done.
“It took until then for me to finally give in, I knew my issues of coping with pressure and self-caused had led to me developing a dependence on alcohol. I should have realised a lot earlier, the writing was on the wall and the people were there to help me.
“David Redvers had tried to help me, but I convinced myself I didn’t have a problem because I didn’t get up in the morning and have a drink.”
Panel chair, O’Mahony, added: “Reference has been made to three breaches of COVID regulations. Breaches of regulations can apply to a whole range of things.
“For example, a family who lives in a 14 floor high block breaking lockdown to have a walk in the park. This level of offending is very different.
“You knew all along that you had to self-isolate, that’s all you had to do, as countless others did. But you embarked on a deception that was planned, carefully calculated and detailed and it was prolonged for a significant period of time. You only put your hands up, with your back against the wall.”