THE most intriguing stewards’ report of the week involved an allegation that Graham Gibbons, due to give a urine sample to officials at Kempton, instead tried to pass off a sample provided by apprentice Callum Shepherd as his own.

Gibbons, who is one of the most gifted riders plying his trade on the winter all-weather circuit, has since handed in his licence in light of an ongoing investigation into the incident by the BHA. The case has certainly got tongues wagging, but it isn’t a simple case of naughty jockeys flying in the face of authority.

Gibbons, as well as being a jockey of rare talent, is a man who has battled alcohol problems over a lengthy period of time, and was once infamously arrested after riding a winner at Wolverhampton as he’d not turned up to answer a drunk and disorderly charge at Scarborough Magistrates Court. He was the first jockey to register over the drink-drive limit on the racecourse, back in 2007, and has served several drink-driving bans.

Unlike testing for performance-enhancing substances, the primary purpose of alcohol testing on racecourses is one of welfare, primarily the well-being of other riders and horses should a rider rock up three sheets to the wind, but there is an important element of jockeys being protected from themselves, and Gibbons’ proven vulnerability meant that at one point he was under continuous assessment by racing’s chief medical officer.

WORRYING

Given that background, it is worrying that he would potentially allow himself to get into a scenario like the one reported midweek. The urine-testing procedures are meant to be tamper proof, with riders going alone to a sampling room where they are meant to be supervised to ensure the correct procedure is followed.

Earlier this year, Shane Kelly (who rode in the Britain as Shane B Kelly) gave a candid interview to the Independent where he admitted to long-term abuse of alcohol and cocaine, but claimed it was easy to avoid detection by “getting someone else to piss into bottles for me.”

Kelly went on to say that it wasn’t possible to evade detection so easily in Ireland, and he himself failed a drug test at Leopardstown last summer. There’s no reason why Kelly would exaggerate the extent of his misuse of drugs while living in Malton, and it behoves the BHA to recognise his comments and deal with the perception that jockeys are successfully attempting to beat the system in Britain.

There is also a concern about the circumstances under which Shepherd felt compelled to provide a false sample, and while the investigation is ongoing, a statement from PJA chief Paul Struthers leaves little doubt as to how events transpired. “Callum made a serious error of judgment,” he said, “but, to his credit, very quickly took steps to correct that error, which led to the resulting stewards’ inquiry into the matter, to which he gave candid evidence.”

Both Shepherd and Gibbons deserve a degree of credit for not making matters worse, Shepherd in volunteering information to the stewards on the night having realised he was in the wrong, and Gibbons for deciding that relinquishing his licence now rather than waiting for formal test results was the right course of action.

The real issue here isn’t whether or not the senior jockey was under the influence, or even whether he was bringing the sport into disrepute by the alleged swap, but whether there is a generic problem with alcohol/drug misuse in racing, and if so, is the culture within the weighing room helping to temper the problem, or deliberately making it worse?