Jockey Jailed For Plane Fire

Paul Carberry, who won the 1999 Grand National on his father's Bobbyjo, received a two-month jail sentence yesterday for starting a fire on a flight home from Spain last year.

However, Carberry, 32, has appealed against the decision by Judge Patrick Brady in the Swords District Court. He was bailed for 1,000 euros and is free to ride in the meantime.

Carberry was returning to Dublin from a week's holiday with 14 friends last October when the incident occurred on an Aer Lingus flight.

He was sitting next to fellow jockey Davy Condon when he set fire to the latter's Irish Times. Some passengers were alarmed, although the fire was soon extinguished. Carberry maintained it happened accidentally while he was fiddling around with a cigarette lighter.

But the judge noted that Carberry's evidence included three important variations on the original statement he provided to police in Dublin Airport.

He said: 'I conclude that his evidence was contrived.' The judge added that Carberry's actions constituted a risk to passengers travelling at 12,000 feet, adding to the distress his actions had caused.

The judge, who also fined Carberry 500 euros (Pounds 340), added: 'I would be failing in my duty if I did not mark the offence.

'Would the defendant, an experienced jockey, have acted similarly in a stable or a transporter containing straw or hay? I would suggest emphatically not.' Fellow jump jockey Timmy Murphy served three months in jail in 2002 for drunken behaviour on a flight from Tokyo. He gave up drinking and went on to land a job with top owner David Johnson.

CORAL have offered 33-1 against Christophe Soumillon emulating Geoff Lewis's 1971 feat of landing the Oaks, Coronation Cup and Derby with his three Epsom mounts Riyalma, Shirocco and Visindar.

Bunood, who finished a two-and-a-half length second to Riyalma in the Pretty Polly Stakes, bruised a foot in that race.

Trainer John Dunlop will decide in the next 48 hours if she can run in the Oaks after she has worked.

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