‘I would watch Braveheart on repeat, with my bottle of vodka’: Horse racing’s troubled star Oisin Murphy

‘I would watch Braveheart on repeat, with my bottle of vodka’ – Horse racing’s troubled star Oisín Murphy

On a fair day, the champion jockey Oisín Murphy says, there is a peculiar kind of peace to be found balancing on a racehorse, the balls of your feet the only part of you in contact with the mount as it surges forward at 40mph, while thousands of baying punters caterwaul around you and a dozen rivals jostle either side, followed - with steady, necessary menace - by an ambulance.

‘I would watch Braveheart on repeat, with my bottle of vodka’: Horse racing’s troubled star Oisin Murphy

His battle with drink has led to bans and a near-fatal car crash, but racing’s George Best may also be the most talented jockey in the world