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Oisin Murphy can learn from wasted life of Kerry jockey Bernard Dillon
While Oisin's life is no where near as chaotic as Bernard Dillon's was, there are some uncomfortable parallels between the presence of alcohol and the slow digression it can inflict on people's lives.
Oisin pleaded guilty at Reading Magistrates' Court this week to drink driving on April 27 adding another smudge to his CV involving alcohol.
There are many who genuinely wish Oisin well (this writer included) and that he can stay clear of alcohol and focus on doing what he does best. For others, the sole focus will undoubtedly be to pile on the criticism, regardless of whether Oisin succeeds or fails.
That Oisin can look to the past and the devastatingly swift fall of Bernard Dillon for guidance is not an unrealistic option. By observing Dillon's decline during the hedonistic days of Edwardian England, Oisin can assess the decline of Dillon's life in slow motion while restructuring his own relationship with alcohol. Towards the end of his life, Dillon had more demons than friends. A sad situation caused in large part by his chronic alcohol abuse.
Oisin Murphy is his own man. He is affable and engaging with the most magnetic personality one can find in the sport of horse racing today. The plain truth of the matter is racing needs Oisin Murphy more than Oisin needs racing.
This does not mean Oisin is above the law. It simply means his value to the sport often goes under appreciated by the very powers that spend hours upon hours wondering how best to promote horse racing. This might well ring hollow in light of recent events, but Oisin is an ambassador for the sport. For all his personal woes, he continues to be the best at what he does – a fact that has always irritated his detractors.
Bernard Dillon was the same. He balanced his life and career precariously close to the edge due to alcohol. And yet, somehow, he rode winners better than any jockey while notching some of horse racing's biggest races. Sadly, Bernard lost his battle with alcohol, which is why Oisin must learn from his fellow Kerry man when navigating his way clear of this trouble.
As with many of life's challenges, hope and inspiration can come from the unlikeliest sources. If this includes studying the life of Bernard Dillon – 115 years later – so be it. For all the pressures faced by Oisin in his profession, Dillon faced them just the same. It boils down to a question of coping. It's why Bernard's decline, because of alcohol, makes him a ready-made template for what Oisin must avoid.
In 1901, Bernard left Tralee to become an apprentice jockey in Sailsbury. Within four years he had caught the eye of racing's most influential owners and trainers as the best jockey of his generation – similar to Oisin's own meteoric rise.
Dillon's Epsom Derby win in 1910 is the centrepiece of his career. This is bookended by wins in the 1000 Guineas, the Grand Prix de Paris, Coronation Cup, and Cesarewitch, to name a few. Such was the preciousness of Bernard Dillon, it's said that he never had a childhood but was fast-tracked to being a successful jockey.
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He spent his teenage years travelling in first class rail carriages and staying in the most expensive hotels courtesy of the wealthiest owners whose horses Bernard was winning races with. He started his career with hard work that soon transformed him into an icon for whom a high life drenched in champagne would be his undoing.
Victims of alcohol often endure a lifetime of self-delusion that they can control it. It's usually too late before the sobering realisation hits home that alcohol has won. This was Bernard Dillon's life.
He battled with weight and would often survive on a diet of soda water and grapes. Drinking was a means of escaping the pressures of his job. Bernard's personality changed. He grew more aggressive, irritable, and distant from the sport and people within his circle.
Bernard's dealings with the law are numerous and practically all caused by his misuse of alcohol. In Paris, in 1909, Bernard punched the window of a taxi in a dispute with a driver. He lost so much blood that he fainted in a Parisian pharmacy.
In October 1917, he pleaded guilty to assaulting a waiter, Antoine Prete, at the Café Royal in Regent's Street. He approached a table in the café when the waiter told him it was engaged. Dillon picked up a soda water bottle and struck Prete on the head.
A more sinister side to Bernard's character when drinking is his domestic abuse. He appeared repeatedly in court for assaulting his wife – the famous Marie Lloyd. This unsettling behaviour accelerated in the years after when he stopped riding due to allegations of gambling and because he had put on too much weight.
It's clear from studying Bernard Dillon's life that alcohol was major part in his demise. The more charges brought against him, the more ostracised he became from the sport he loved. He died penniless in 1941 in London after a life shaped by racing and defined by drinking.
Oisin Murphy has achieved too much to throw it all away. Bernard lives on as a reminder of the disasters awaiting sporting personalities who resort to alcohol – a perilous example of how ruthlessly it brought down horse racing's famous poster boy over a century ago.
Stephen Fernane is the author of 'The Life and Times of Bernard Dillon: The Narie that Won the Derby'. To find out more visit:
