Racing: Jockeys' breathalysers begin with teetotaller

Jockeys have been breathalysed on a British racecourse for the first time. Twelve riders were tested before racing at Brighton on Tuesday under new Jockey Club rules, and they all passed.

Alan Daly was the first one of the dozen and said: "It was ironic that I was the first to be done. I wasn't in the least bit worried, because I am teetotal."

His weighing-room colleague Martin Dwyer added: "It was a spot check and none of us expected it, but it is comforting to know that everyone sailed through, which is the way it should be."

In procedures announced last month, the jockey ranks will have to cope with 3,000 tests a year for alcohol and for drugs such as cocaine and ecstasy. The Jockey Club's aim is to increase testing to 12 to 14 race meetings a month.

The plan is for urine samples to be taken from six to eight riders and breathalyser tests from 12 to 16, covering two jump meetings and one Flat card during the winter and the reverse ratio during the summer.

RACING IN BRIEF

* Richard Johnson has deposed Tony McCoy at the top of the jump jockeys' table. Johnson had joined McCoy on the 36-winner mark with a double at Newton Abbot on Monday. Victory on Chivite at Uttoxeter yesterday moved him ahead of the champion who has been out of action since breaking his right arm in a fall on 18 June. He is aiming to return in three weeks.

* Michael Jarvis's success with his two-year-olds this season continued at Lingfield yesterday when Dallaah became his sixth juvenile to score first time out from nine runners.

* Ladbrokes are quoting odds of 5-1 against Zuhair winning the race now named in his honour at Glorious Goodwood for a fifth consecutive time. The 10-year-old, trained by David Nicholls, has proved unstoppable in the five-furlong handicap.