A JOCKEY who estimated he took “eight or nine lines” of cocaine on a night out before he was due to ride has been banned for six months.
Ray Dawson told a disciplinary panel of how a bad break-up led him back to alcohol for the first time in years before taking the drug on August 18.
Dawson, who apperaed in front of the BHA independent disciplinary panel on Monday, has previously spoken about his struggles with alcohol and had been abstinent for most of the last five years.
His second relapse, which ultimately led to the night in question, stemmed from a break-up with the mother of his child at the end of 2022.
Dawson had been drinking at a Newmarket pub on August 18 when he was offered cocaine by a stranger who he had engaged in conversation with.
The panel heard that Dawson estimates he took eight or nine lines of the drug and was subsequently tested at Bath racecourse the next day, where he rode five horses. “How big those lines were, I don’t quite know.”
Imposing the six-month ban, BHA disciplinary panel chair Tim Grey said: “Cocaine is extremely dangerous, it’s illegal for good reason.
“The risk you pose to your fellow jockeys, to those on the course and to the public at large when you use drugs is both real and serious. That is not to ignore the risk to the reputation of the sport.
“Accepting drugs from an unknown man in a pub is reckless in the extreme and puts you in real peril. You can have had no idea precisely what you were ingesting.
“In the future you will, we sincerely hope, have a successful career in racing. There may be times when continued abstinence is challenging.
“When that happens, think about this hearing and what you would be throwing away. I hope this will provide you with an additional incentive to find the strength to continue in abstinence.”
Dawson’s six-month ban has been backdated from September 1, meaning he is banned until March.
A statement issued on Dawson’s behalf read: “Ray would like to thank the BHA and the disciplinary panel for the way in which this matter has been handled.
“He looks forward to returning to race-riding in the spring, subject to having established to the BHA’s satisfaction that his recovery remains on track.”
Dawson opened up about his struggle with addiction in 2021 and how he had turned his life around following a car crash in 2019, where he was under the influence of alcohol.
On the track, Dawson has enjoyed a pair of Group 2 successes, including the 2022 Duke of Cambridge aboard Mawj.
In 2023, he had won the Listed Queensferry Stakes at Chester on Roger Varian’s Mitbaahy.
