Paul Carberry

It's amazing what you see over the years and who you see. I remember being in Listowel one day fancying the three mounts of a current, senior Group winning jock. Until I was told by a lad I knew that he had served him a few whiskeys in the wee hours of that morning. His three mounts were all beaten under half a length and knowing what I knew I def think mistakes were made although if you didn't know you would prob think things just hadn't gone the jocks way. There is no excuse for these lads when they have responsibilities to owners and trainers. It's not like walking into the office with a hangover where you can manage your days work and push off some decision making to the next day. The horses have to be ridden at the set time irrespective of how the jock feels.
 
Strange how so many seem to think that a lot of jockeys are tee-totallers who are tucked up with a cocoa by 10pm every night! The reality is very different.
 
I once drank a lot of beer with a man who was riding the hottest favourite of the Cheltenham festival the following day.I went home at closing time-he went on to a hotel.The horse was well beaten.
 
LUKE said:
I once drank a lot of beer with a man who was riding the hottest favourite of the Cheltenham festival the following day.I went home at closing time-he went on to a hotel.The horse was well beaten.
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Similarly I saw a jock in pretty bad shape drowning his sorrows for a mistake he made and went out and rode a blinder to win the Stayers the next day!!
 
I used to watch jocks win races knowing they'd been on it in the Queen's all weekend, having joined in with most of it myself! We had a winner once on New Years Day; the jock took forever to pull it up (mentioning no names!!!) and disappeared around the corner. When asked what was up he explained that he was so drunk he'd had to keep going round the corner so he could throw up unseen!
 
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lol. connections of a VERY famous studdfarm in germany once told us that after their horse ran a stinker after an horrendous ride in america, with one of their top-jocks on board, on coming into the unsaddleing thing the guy got off the horse and threw up right there. no further explanation for the bad ride needed ..
 
01 Nov 19:59
Latest...........................


DISCIPLINARY action against top jockey Paul Carberry following a second failed random test for alcohol at Naas on Saturday should be taken within the next two weeks, the Turf Club said on Sunday.

Denis Egan, chief executive of the Turf Club, is hoping the referrals committee will be able to deal with the controversial episode involving Carberry, whose breath-test failure was passed on to them by the acting stewards at Naas, but admitted that "there is no precedent for this type of case".

Carberry issued a statement on Saturday evening expressing his regret at letting down himself and the trainers and owners for whom he was due to ride at Naas. He also stated his intention to take immediate action to deal with his alcohol problem.

Egan said on Sunday: "The referrals committee will deal with the matter as soon as we can set it up and, hopefully, that will be within the next couple of weeks."

Saturday was Carberry's second alcohol breath test offence. He was banned from riding on one day of the 2007 Galway festival and for another three days after failing a similar test.

Regarding what view the referrals committee might take on the matter, Egan said: "This is the first time the committee will have had to consider such a case. Nothing similar has been passed on to them in the past, so there is no precedent for this type of case and what way it might be dealt with.

"They will have to listen to what Paul [Carberry] has to say and deal with it accordingly."

Carberry was expected to be in action at Cork on Sunday until the meeting was lost to heavy rain.
 
He will get a slap on the wrist and a 12-20 day ban and be back riding for Crimbo. When he got into trouble with the plane incident he should have gone to jail but the lobby got him off with community service. I'd say it might be similar this time. Like most things, it will only be cut out of the game by enforcement and drink is a drug and if he was over the limit he was the same as a jock caught with cocaine in his system and should get six to twelve months. A brilliant talent but he needs to take his punishment now.
 
All too often drunks are refered to as "party animals" or "characters" as if its all ok. And yet taking a line of charlie makes you a hardened criminal. I agree with Cantoris

but if his problem is as bad as it would appear, then the culture surrounding him is partly to blame. To some extent we saw the same with George Best (who wouldnt want to forget endlessly repeated "drink Canada Dry" joke). There is nothing funny about an alcoholic.

I feel pity for him and i suspect hes a crossroads in his life and career. It is essential for him that he takes the hardest route now.
 
Sheikh said:
He's been at it for years and I doubt it will make any difference to him, he didn't lick it off the ground.
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Did he ever with that bet with McManus about whether he could stay dry for a year? He was drinking on the side but not in public and thought he got pretty close to it. And not for a fiver either.
 
Greg Wood The Guardian, Monday 2 November 2009 Article historyNoel Meade, who retains Paul Carberry as the No1 rider at his powerful yard in County Meath, said yesterday that he will offer the jockey all the support he can as the rider tries to address alcohol-related problems that saw him fail a breath test before racing at Naas on Saturday.

However, Meade also made it clear that neither he nor his owners will stand for any repeat of Saturday's events, which saw Carberry stood down for the day by the stewards barely half an hour before the first race on the card.

"It's obvious that Paul has a problem that he is going to have to address," Meade said, "and from the conversation I had with him yesterday he seems to have realised that and will be doing all he can. If he's going the right way, then we'll all do whatever we can to support him in that."

Meade stood by Carberry when he was sentenced to two months in prison in 2006 for setting fire to a newspaper on a plane, a sentence that was reduced to a community service order on appeal.

"Things are going to have to change," Meade said. "It is probably going to take quite a while. It's a struggle that has probably been going on for him for some time but it's come to the end of the line now and he's going to have to kick it for good."
 
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Alcohol is only one of his problems. He has fallen into his own hype (for many years now) of mad storys about him out on horseback in the dead of night etc and he enjoys that reputation. Just needs to cop on and act his age (has had another kid recently) rather than confront a serious drink addiction as others have had to do.
 
A couple of changed words in that last sentence and I would have to seriously considering telling the police and, far worse, perhaps even consider banning him from the forum... :D

More seriously, there is no doubt that he plays to that "mad man" reputation (though it is well deserved). All of those stories about him riding into McCarthy's during a hunt and ordering a pint from horseback etc.

That said, Meade sounds fairly serious about this though. It would absolutely cut him up to have to let Paul loose (which I doubt he will do) as they are very close but Paul really isn't giving him any help at all here and I just wonder if it may be too late to change now.
 
Galileo said:
out on horseback in the dead of night
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But the floodlights were on so it wasn't very dark......although the horses might have thought differently!! I didn't know he had another kid recently. What are the odds that the young un rides the offspring of STS/Zarkava to win the Arc in a few years??!! PPowers will prob offer 200/1 knowing them.
 
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