Oisin Murphy, the reigning champion jockey on the Flat, was fined £70,000 with an additional £2,000 surcharge and £85 in costs at Reading magistrates court on Thursday after pleading guilty to a drink-driving charge following a crash in the early hours of 27 April.
Murphy, 29, who was also banned from driving for 20 months, was described in court as having tested “just shy” of twice the legal limit for alcohol around seven hours after the crash. He returned a reading of 66 micrograms of alcohol per 100ml of breath, well above the legal limit of 35 micrograms per 100ml of breath.
He was not required to plead to an additional charge of failing to provide a test sample at the roadside, following what was described as “a misunderstanding between him and the police officers” by Richard Atkins, representing the Crown Prosecution Service.
The court heard that Murphy admitted to police at the scene that he had been the driver of the grey Mercedes A-Class car, which left the road near Hermitage, West Berkshire, and collided with a tree. A female passenger in the car was subsequently taken to hospital.
Murphy missed four booked rides at Southwell later the same day, but returned to race-riding at Windsor on the evening of 28 April, where he rode a double.
Doncaster1.43 Dream Pirate 2.15 Mon Na Slieve 2.50 Bahadur 3.25 Elsass (nap) 4.00 Alondra 4.35 Pearly Squirrel 5.10 Sugar Baby
Sandown1.50 Warning Sign 2.25 Key Of Magic 3.00 Staya 3.35 Getreadytorumble 4.10 Checkandchallenge 4.45 Al Nayyir 5.20 Triple Gee
Newton Abbot1.58 Isle Of Sark 2.33 Keel Strand 3.08 Kenmya 3.43 Shillanavogy 4.18 Max Of Stars 4.53 Jony Max
Haydock5.30 U Turn 6.05 Kingmaker 6.40 Dream Angel 7.15 Artanis 7.50 Indian Springs 8.25 Desert Falcon
Beverley5.42 Soca Star 6.15 Emeralds Pride 6.50 Orbaan 7.25 Atmosphere (nb) 8.00 Tara Iti 8.35 Overlooked
Bangor5.56 Tango Theatre 6.30 Herja 7.05 Barranco 7.40 Donnie Azoff 8.15 Land Girl’s Luck 8.50 Elusive Power
Passing sentence, district judge Sam Goozee told Murphy that he was “lucky that neither you nor your passenger nor any member of the public was injured” in the crash.”