Oisin Murphy makes perfect return at Chelmsford

Oisin Murphy made a winning return to the saddle at Chelmsford on Thursday evening, following his 14-month ban for alcohol and Covid breaches.

The three-time champion jockey had just the one ride when partnering the Mick Appleby-trained Jupiter Express in the second race on the card, the Winning Connections Networking Handicap.

He had not ridden in public since November 2021 – but wasted little time in getting on the scoresheet, travelling smoothly on the inner aboard the 15-8 favourite and swinging into contention on the home bend.

There was no catching The Horse Watchers-owned four-year-old from there and he was always holding runner-up Thismydream, scoring by half a length at the line.

“It’s fantastic (to be back),” Murphy told Racing TV after the race.

“It’s been a while, but it’s brilliant to be back on the racecourse and to also ride a winner as well.

“I’m quite fit and I really enjoyed that. Even the banter in the weighing room I really missed that.”

He added of Jupiter Express: “We felt like we could sit on the rail just behind the leaders and the horse was coming into the race in good form.

“It was a relatively easy job for me and great to get another winner for these connections who are quite shrewd with their purchases and they make effort to put them in the right races. So it was very pleasing to see me jocked up a few days ago for this horse.

“I hit the front plenty soon and I felt for this grade the pace was quite strong and we were always going to be vulnerable to a closer if hitting the front before the furlong pole, so sharpness-wise I’m going to have to keep thinking about racing all the time and hopefully that instinct will come back quickly. But I will be making every effort to make sure I’m riding as well as I can.”

Murphy will now head to Qatar at the weekend to ride Flaming Rib for Hugo Palmer with trips to Dubai, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain also pencilled in over the next few weeks and he hopes his match sharpness will soon return.

He continued: “I’ve been riding out throughout my suspension and it can’t replicate race-riding. That competitiveness and sharpness to make decisions it doesn’t really matter grade or what distance, that only comes from race-riding.

“It was quite a long time to find new jobs and tasks to get through the day. Obviously you ride out but that only kills a few hours a day and I got into a routine of focussing on my show jumpers and riding and training them outside of the mornings and I really enjoyed going to some big show jumping competitions and watching horses taking part.

“I also kept my eye in by going racing, I was at Royal Ascot and also Glorious Goodwood and my main trainer Andrew Balding had a terrific year last year and I remained part of that success I felt anyway.

“That was a brilliant motivation to go forward and a major factor in having this day as my focus for such a long period.”

The British Horseracing Authority announced last week Murphy will undergo increased alcohol and drug testing after he was found to have failed two racecourse breathalyser tests, at Chester and Newmarket.

At the conclusion of a hearing in February last year it was revealed he also breached Covid rules by lying about his whereabouts in September 2020, visiting the Greek island of Mykonos, which was on the Covid ‘red list’ at the time, but attempting to convince officials he had been at Lake Como in Italy.

Murphy – who told BBC Sport in June last year he had experienced alcoholic blackouts during the period which ultimately led to his suspension – was keen to pay tribute to the support provided his employer Qatar Racing and also long-time ally Balding, while also expressing a desire to atone for his errors.

“Realistically (what I did) it was very silly and I made many, many errors that I wish I hadn’t done,” he added.

“I was given a period of time to think about that and come back with a different mindset. Hopefully over next year and the following years I can prove to be the person I hope to be.”

On his reception and welcome back, he said: “It’s been incredible, when you start naming people you leave people out, but from my family to the Baldings to the whole of the Qatar Racing team, I never felt left out.”