A year is a very long time in racing until it’s not.

If you switched off completely from flat racing last year and came back to it this year, it would seem nothing has changed with Oisin Murphy. No other jockey has had more rides or winners in the British jockeys’ championship as the Kerry native, as he kicks on riding for the trainers and owners he has long been associated with.

And yet, so much has gone on in Murphy’s story before and continues to go on now. Prior to his comeback, the chapters’ main theme focused on the main character’s failure to cope under pressure which led to acts of deceit which in turn, led to his embarrassment and to his shame.

The curve dipped to a very low point but it seems like it didn’t take long to rebound via his own willingness to front up to his demons and do everything he can to repay a seemingly bottomless faith shown in him.

It’s a case of so far so good. Murphy hasn’t taken a drink since October ’21. He has owned up to his problems and taken full advantage of that realism, engaging in therapy and counselling to help him walk the line.

Easier said than done but if he can keep to that line, it’s a golden highway for him, such is his talent and such is the support he has from some of the most powerful figures in British racing.

The season so far is a case in point. Among his chart-topping 81 winners for 2023 as a whole, his very first ride back was a winner, he rode a treble on All-Weather Finals Day on Good Friday at Newcastle and he has a classic winner courtesy of Mawj’s superb performance to down Tahiyra in the 1000 Guineas. He has even broken new ground by securing his first winner at the Curragh, through Art Power in the Group 2 Greenlands Stakes.

Tomorrow he is in Chantilly in search of further classic glory, this time on Running Lion in the Prix de Diane, and next week he will be among the busiest riders at Royal Ascot where he is set to ride the favourite for the Gold Cup in Andrew Balding’s Coltrane and will be back on Mawj in the Coronation Stakes.

“I never really stopped riding out last year,” Murphy says. “I think that was the hardest part, missing nice horses. Even the two-year-old maidens. You’d be riding them out in the mornings and then seeing them going out and winning.

“It’s been nice to just get on nice horses at the races again. When I was returning I certainly wasn’t sure what it would be like, but I managed to hit the ground running by getting some rides in Saudi and Dubai, and from then on things have flowed well.

“Andrew Balding has supported me well, and other trainers like Saeed bin Suroor, which is what I was hoping for. All the lads in the weighroom have been grand and no trainer that I rode for in the past has stopped using me. I’ve ridden for all the same people again which has been good, it’s back to normality really.”

Extra pressure

It’s a new normality in a way. An extra pressure to repay all those closest to him - namely his family, Andrew and Anna Lisa Balding, David Redvers. Sheikh Fahad Al-Thani and everyone at Qatar Racing.

But that pressure pales to what he has gone through before, a gradual build up of weight on his shoulders from the end of 2019 to the end of 2021.

When he eventually fell, he fell hard. A 14-month ban was delivered from a combination of two failed breath tests at the races and when he was found to have deliberately misled an investigation in to a breach of Covid-19 protocols, having travelled over to Mykonos in Greece.

Murphy knew about these incoming charges for a relatively long time while the general racing public didn’t, which makes it remarkable that he was able to fight tooth and nail with William Buick for the jockeys’ championship, which he eventually secured for a third year in a row, with two winners in hand.

“It was a very stressful period,” he reflects now. “I knew the BHA were going to do me for going to Mykonos. There hadn’t been communication for months but I knew it was coming. I wasn’t sure how long the punishment was going to be and I found that pretty hard going from day to day thinking about that.

“Sure then I got into a bad habit of drinking every day, particularly on the way home from the races. I would never drive myself so I got into the habit of having one bottle of wine or sometimes two, and I did a lot of drinking on my own as well. It was a really big thing, something I did every day.

“It was a coping mechanism or I thought it was, but it was having a really negative effect on me. I knew for quite a while that it wasn’t normal to drink that amount of alcohol, particularly on a daily basis. I had a few attempts at stopping. Sometimes I’d stop for a week but when I failed the breathalyzer at Newmarket I was obviously incredibly embarrassed and I had to decide for myself that that was enough.”

Initially, Murphy was due to have his hearing in December but he was granted more time on welfare grounds to get himself help, and he handed in his licence voluntarily.

Lots of people were willing to help him and while he will be eternally grateful for that, he acknowledges now that he had to make the step himself.

“That is the first thing that needs to happen,” he says. “Anyone who has a drinking problem, it needs to be their choice to fix it. People can tell you that they think you drink too much but unless you decide for yourself, you’re not going to do anything about it. I had to make that decision for myself.

“My family were brilliant, my mum and dad were great. My sister Blaithin, she has been living with me, she is a massive help. The Qatar Racing team were fantastic. There was never bad conversations between me and any of the team, they were all very supportive, so I think I was in a pretty unique situation to have employers like that.

“I still see the counsellor once or twice a week. She is excellent. I suppose I’m busier than most jockeys in Europe between riding out and the amount of rides I’m taking on the track so the schedule is very hectic but I have a really good team around me.

“An Irish guy called Jimmy Derham organises everything outside of racing for me. I’ve a really good lad called Kiaran O’Brien driving me – he’s Irish as well. My mum is there to help as well. I’m fortunate to have those people becuse then I can just find nice horses and try to win on them.

“My social life is definitely not like it was before but I haven’t stopped it. Some guys when they stop drinking, they really cut their social life out but I still like to go out for dinner and things - I haven’t become anti-social as such.”

Murphy’s time off the track did allow him a little freedom to engage in other interests but between riding out five mornings a week and engaging in therapy, he wasn’t exactly at a loose end. He did find time for his very first passion, show jumping.

“I managed to compete in lots of 1.35s and 1.30s, and one-star international level,” he explains. “I had a very nice horse to ride regularly called Medusa. I really tried hard to ride well. I had a very good instructor in Richard Howley, who’s Irish, and I’m very friendly with the two Michael Duffys, Darragh Kenny and David Simpson.

“They were great people to be around. They all follow racing as well so there’s a good overlap there. I had some nice horses, and then I bought some horses for Richard Howley to jump and he did very well with them.

“I dreamt about being a show jumper so it was a great to get that chance to do it.

“To be honest, with the show jumping, therapy and riding out, I didn’t have that much time to myself. And for the first time in my life, I had to worry about money coming in and out. Maybe that was a good thing as well because you’re just preparing for the life after being a jockey.”

Logic

With the evidence of his results so far this term and simple logic of comparing what he had to deal with off the track before his ban, it’s legitimate to wonder if the Oisin Murphy we have right now is riding as well as he ever has been.

“I’m certainly very focused but I don’t think I’m riding better than I was before,” he replies. “In reality my strike rate in the championship is only 18%, I’d like to be converting more seconds into winners. To win the championship I’m certainly going to have to do that.

“I’ll try my best to win the championship obviously, but I have a lot of trips abroad this year, I’ll be out in America hopefully for The Foxes in the Belmont Derby. I want to be at those meetings of course but I’ll miss plenty at home and the likes of Tom (Marquand) and William (Buick) are top class riders - they will be difficult to beat.”

Perhaps a gradual fade out of the championship race, for all that it may prove unlikely, will be a blessing in disguise, given the physical and mental wear and tear it can take. Murphy has little to prove on this front in any case. He is a three-time champion and clearly still regarded as one of the best in the business around the racing world.

He hopes to ride in Japan later this year, where he had built up a strong following, and if that falls through, one imagines he won’t be short of offers. Aside from his talent, he has maintained a strong following on social media and also was a big part of the Horsepower documentary released on Amazon Prime last year - a Drive To Survive-style docu-series on racing.

Before he hit rocky shores, he was very much a poster boy for the game, but he hasn’t lost sight of that position as he continues to engage with racing fans on social media and he is more than willing to voice his opinion on the good and the bad in this sport, namely the attacks on British racing from Animal Rising and the new whip rules that came into effect when he was away.

“What we must realise with Animal Rising is that they want to ban people owning pets and once we get that message out there, they will have no support,” Murphy says.

“I don’t think they have a lot of support anyway. If you look through their funding like I did, it was the same names donating like 15 times. I would question whether their funding is legitimate. I don’t think Animal Rising is something we need to worry about too much.

“I wouldn’t like to see any more changes to the whip rules. I think they’re very strict at the moment. I really hope the future of British racing is in safe hands. I think the future of Irish racing is in brilliant hands.

“The thing about Ireland and the general public, if Ruby Walsh walks down the street, people know who he is. Racing gets air time on RTÉ News every second day. The relationship between racing and the general public isn’t the same in Britain.

“It’s a shame really because we need to believe in the product we have to offer and we’re incapable of doing that, I really do think that. I want British racing to thrive, I love riding here, I love riding in Ireland and France as well, but British racing needs people at the top really believing in the sport.”

British racing will stand tall for a worldwide audience when Royal Ascot kicks off on Tuesday and Murphy will have plenty of chances to add to his tally of 10 winners at the meeting (discussed below), most notably Mawj in the Coronation Stakes and Coltrane in the Gold Cup.

Big time rides at a big time meeting. Almost as if he has never been away.

Royal Ascot hopes:

Winning the 1000 Guineas on Mawj was massive, right up there with my biggest ever wins. It was a huge vote of confidence from HH Sheikh Mohammed and I’m delighted Saeed bin Suroor has come across a good filly. We have a great strike rate together so I always ride his horses with confidence. Everything went to plan at Newmarket. I really respect Tahiyra next week - I thought she was excellent at the Curragh so it will be a good battle.

Coltrane is in the Gold Cup. I haven’t ridden him since the Sagaro but he felt brilliant in that. He showed a great turn of foot. I’ve seen him plenty at home at Andrew’s (Balding) and he is very happy with him.

I have a few nice juveniles to look forward to. Out Of The Stars, trained by Archie Watson and owned by Sheikh Fahad, she’s a really nice filly. She has purposely not ran since her debut and we’ve just targeted the Queen Mary.

Another one for Sheikh Fahad, trained by John Gosden, is Hellfire Bay, she is going to run in the Albany and we’re very happy with her. She won well at Kempton and I think she is definitely a high class filly in the making, though she might be a little raw still. In the handicaps, Joseph is running Valiant King. I should have won on him in Leopardstown and he has since won the time after. Sheikh Fahad owns him as well. Keep an eye out for Lady Eros for owner David Howden. She’s a War Front trained by the Gosdens, and it is likely she’ll run in the fillies’ handicap (Sandringham).