Day

The champion jockey of British horse racing was banned from riding for three months on Friday following a positive test for cocaine. The punishment was handed down by France Galop, four months after Oisin Murphy returned a positive test for metabolites of the drug in a test undertaken at Chantilly. Murphy, a 25-year-old jockey from Ireland, denied he had taken any drugs and requested a B sample. He evaded a six-month ban given to riders for similar cases after a disciplinary hearing was persuaded by Murphy’s testimony that the positive test arose unintentionally from what was described as “environmental contamination.” […]