Jockey suspended after testing 1,000 times over cocaine limit

The backdated ban will end next month

Adrian McCarthy was suspended for six months (Getty Images)

Irish jockey Adrian McCarthy was suspended for six months after testing 1,000 times above the cocaine limit.

McCarthy, who said an addiction to drugs left him in a rut, was suspended on Thursday after the disciplinary panel of the British Horseracing Authority was told at a hearing that he tested positive for benzoylecgonine, a metabolite of cocaine, in a urine sample at Chelmsford on Oct. 15 last year.

He gave a reading of 150,300 nanograms per millilitre, with the threshold for riding set at 150 ng/ml.

The 42-year-old said he was “in a really bad place” at that time and had tried to take his own life.

“I just got into a bit of a rut,” McCarthy told the hearing. “Drinking all the time, using drugs, cocaine, and trying to make things better. Obviously it doesn’t make things better.

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“I’m in a lot better place now than I was before, I just want to get my head down and do what’s right.

“We all make mistakes. I made a mistake, I regret it. I just have to look forward and work hard.”

McCarthy is banned from racing until April 21, with his six-month suspension backdated to Oct. 22.

Reuters