Oisin Murphy, Britain’s reigning champion jockey on the Flat, has been charged with one count of driving a motor vehicle while over the prescribed level of alcohol and one count of failing to cooperate with a preliminary test at the roadside after a collision in the early hours of Sunday 27 April this year.
Thames Valley police said in a statement on Thursday that Murphy, 29, was charged by postal requisition on 19 June. That day, he rode a double at Royal Ascot, on Arabian Story in the Britannia Stakes and Never So Brave in the Buckingham Palace Stakes.
The collision on 27 April involved a grey Mercedes A Class vehicle that left the road near Hermitage, west Berkshire, and crashed into a tree.
Murphy, the champion Flat jockey four times between 2019 and 2024, has ridden 49 winners in the current championship race, 17 clear of his nearest rival.
Murphy rode a treble at Leicester on 26 April but missed four booked rides at Southwell the following day. The stewards’ report for the meeting at Southwell listed “travel issues for Murphy” as the reason.
He was back in the saddle at Windsor on 28 April, with two winners from five rides, and has subsequently won races including the Group One Lockinge Stakes at Newbury in May, on John & Thady Gosden’s Lead Artist, in addition to five winners at Royal Ascot last week.
Murphy has five booked rides at Doncaster on Friday and six on a valuable card at York on Saturday.
The British Horseracing Authority, the sport’s regulator, issued a statement on Thursday that said it “is aware of an update issued by Thames Valley police this afternoon regarding Mr Oisin Murphy”. The statement continued: “We are now seeking to gather as much information as possible in order to consider what, if any, implications there are as a result of this development.”
Murphy is due to appear at Reading magistrates court on 3 July.
