'When alcohol was on my brain it didn't matter that I had racing the next day'

Ray Dawson was sitting in a police cell when he came to a realisation. The jockey could not remember how he got there but was told he had crashed his car while under the influence of alcohol. It was then that he finally decided to ask for help in his battle with addiction.

Dawson spent years struggling with alcoholism and substance abuse before making that life-saving decision 17 months ago. He has been sober ever since but knows things could have turned out differently.

"I was drinking quite heavily in the house and I blacked out," says Dawson, who has developed a new-found clarity on his difficult past.