Is there any way back for Robert Winston?

Here's my piece on the banned jockey from today's Guardian.

Is there any way back for Robert Winston? Having been warned off the track for one year, the future certainly looks bleak for the man who a decade ago looked to have the racing world at his feet.
In his darkest hour, Winston can however take heart from the fact that disgraced jockeys have resurrected their careers before.
John Egan, suspended from riding in Hong Kong after being found guilty of corruption (and currently awaiting trial in Britain for firearms offences), enjoyed a vintage 2006 in winning two Group Ones, the Chester Cup and the Ebor. And over the jumps Dean Gallagher made a successful return to the saddle after serving an 18-month ban imposed by the Jockey Club for failing a drugs test.
Winston says he is "determined to become champion jockey some day, with God's help". For that to happen, his first priority will be to regain the confidence of both trainers and owners.
Trainer Mark Brisbourne, for whom Winston has ridden winners, thinks it can be done. "I don't think many doors will be closed to him. He's young, fit and hasn't got any ailments. He has certainly got a future in racing."
Maintaining race fitness during his year away from the track will be a problem but at least Winston will still be able to work in a yard and ride out.
Perhaps the biggest challenge Winston faces during his enforced absence is a personal one. The son of an alcoholic, Winston had reached the age of 18 having drunk just one glass of cider. But a fateful double vodka, urged on him by fellow apprentices one day after racing, sparked off a gradual descent into alcoholism.
Things hit rock-bottom during a long lay-off with injury in 2005. Drinking every day from 1pm until the early hours of the morning, Winston's ordeal only ended when he checked himself in to rehab. A regular at Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, Winston admitted in the past that he was depressed when sober. But remaining sober is what he will have to do if he ever is to return to the sport and go anywhere near the heights he once reached.
After announcing his arrival in the sport in audacious fashion in 1996 by beating the 11-times champion Pat Eddery in a photo-finish when still an apprentice at Nottingham, Winston's talent and conscientiousness looked set to propel him right to the very top.
But while it is tempting to see as a turning point his horrific fall at Ayr in August 2005, which put him out of action for four months with a broken jaw and scuppered his chances of a first jockeys' title, we now know that the seeds of his decline had been sown some time before.
Sport is full of nearly men, highly gifted individuals who have come agonisingly close to glory but due to bad luck, mental weakness or sometimes both, have failed to get their hands on the main prize.
Robert Winston is going to find it very tough not to become the latest addition to their number.