‘I knew what I was doing' – Jockey slapped with six-month cocaine ban after ‘utterly stupid' blunder
COKE SHAME 'I knew what I was doing' – Jockey slapped with six-month cocaine ban after 'utterly stupid' blunder
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A CHELTENHAM-winning jockey has been branded 'utterly stupid' - after being hit with a six-month cocaine ban.
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.
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.
"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.
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."
Lee's ban comes a week after news that a John Gosden yard worker who took ketamine three days a week contaminated horses.
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