‘I knew what I was doing' – Jockey slapped with six-month cocaine ban after ‘utterly stupid' blunder
Amateur rider Sam Lee admitted 'I knew full well what I was doing' as the huge suspension was handed out.
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Amateur jockey Sam Lee was branded 'utterly stupid' after being smacked with a six-month cocaine ban
Credit: Racingfotos.com
Popular Lee warmed to punters as a cheeky chappy in front of the ITV cameras before finishing third on Golan Fortune at Cheltenham in November 2020.
Prior to that he won a Listed contest on the same horse at the home of jumps to mark himself out as a jockey to follow.
But now his career looks in disarray after he was read the riot act in a no-holds-barred BHA disciplinary hearing.
Lee was found to have taken cocaine two days before a ride - on which he finished second - at Warwick in May.
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But panel chairman James O'Mahony explained how, in Lee's account of events, it was in a way accidental.
The jockey accepted he knew what the white powder was when he put it into his mouth.
But contact came about 'inadvertently' when the Class A drug was passed around on some banknotes.
O'Mahony said: "He did know what it was, or he had a good idea what it was, and he ingested it, took it deliberately.
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"So it's not accidental in that sense but he didn't procure it deliberately."
While BHA barrister Charlotte Davison said: "He accepted he was aware of what the substance was before he put it into his mouth.
"He said, 'I knew full well what I was doing' and described himself as being 'a bit of a plonker' for doing what he did."
Lee said in a video sent to the hearing that he had suffered indescribable lows since the positive drugs test.
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He insisted the whole ordeal had given him a 'kick up the a**e' and added: "I want to help you guys to help me get my licence back as quick as I can."
O'Mahony pulled no punches, though.
He said: "What you did was utterly stupid. It's a Class A drug for goodness sake.
"The authorities must come down hard on any question of cocaine being used by the persons involved in racing."
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Lee's ban comes a week after news that a John Gosden yard worker who
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