'It has tarnished my name and could ruin my career, but I never took cocaine'
David Jennings talks to the deeply frustrated jockey about a long-running saga
It is about time you heard how innocent until proven guilty turned into guilty after proven innocence.
Robbie Downey will finally wake up from his horrifying nightmare on Monday week. That is, of course, if a trainer books him to ride at Naas on June 8. He has served a six-month ban after testing positive for cocaine while riding at Le Lion-D'Angers in June of last year. The promising 23-year-old rider says he is hungrier than ever. Quite how he has retained an appetite for the game is a mystery to me after hearing his harrowing story.
You may have read the headline: Downey fails drugs test. You probably jumped to your own conclusions: another talented kid caught with cocaine. Will they ever learn? We tend to tar them all with the same brush, you see. They all have different stories, yet we all make the same assumptions. The Downey saga is different, though. Very different indeed.
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- It's been a quarter of a century since we started - here's how we've seen the sport we love change
- 'You can see why people end up struggling - when you're trying to pay the electric bill, losing one ride can be massive'
- 'I've never paid six figures for a horse and never will - I learned pretty quickly you're only one phone call away from f*** all'
- 'I’ve trained some fabulous horses, worked with some excellent riders - maybe I have brought a little bit of talent to the table as well'
- ‘When you’re in the moment and you’re starved, you’re ready to explode - everything built up and I just lost my s**t’