• Jockey banned for six months after testing positive for drug• Rider told hearing he had struggled with depression for yearsThe jockey William Carson admitted taking “eight or nine lines” of cocaine in a pub on a Monday night, just two days before riding in races at Lingfield and Kempton, a disciplinary panel has heard. Carson, who has been battling depression for years, told officials he took the drug on odd occasions last winter as a means of escape from his illness, but it got him into trouble when a test found 1,750 nanograms of cocaine per millilitre of urine, more than 10 times over the threshold for a positive.
The grandson of the five-times champion jockey Willie Carson, he has now been given a six-month ban from race-riding. However, he may be back riding in a matter of days, having been suspended since 4 April, when the
British Horseracing Authority became aware he had failed the test, and the punishment has been backdated.