How superstar jockey Jamie Kah’s white powder scandal unfolded

It started out as a quiet seafood and champagne catch-up with some jockey friends but ended with a plate, bank card and three fat lines of white powder.

Jockeys Jamie Kah, Ben Melham, Ethan Brown and Celine Gaudry having dinner at The Rocks in Mornington on Saturday 17, before Kah went home and had a gear change. Source: Instagram

It started out as a quiet seafood and champagne catch-up with some jockey friends.

Superstar jockey Jamie Kah and her boyfriend, fellow jockey Ben Melham, dined out at Mornington seafood hotspot The Rocks last Saturday night.

In good spirits and drinking champagne, they sat opposite friends and jockeys, Ethan Brown, who nearly died in a horrifying fall of his own at Flemington in March, and his girlfriend, jockey Celine Gaudry.

With seaside views from the Mornington marina and smiling for the camera, the mood was optimistic. Kah was due to pass her first test in her comeback to race riding, with trackwork at Cranbourne and Mornington that week, following a sickening fall at Flemington in March, which left her with a brain injury so bad she thought it was almost 10 years prior.

Coincidentally, it was the same group of friends who were part of an illegal wild Airbnb bash in Mornington during lockdown in 2021, which resulted in the group and fellow jockey Mark Zahra, getting slapped with suspensions by racing stewards and banned from that year’s Spring Racing Carnival.

Only months earlier Kah was riding high. She rode her 100th winner in May at Cranbourne, was far outstripping her male cohorts with the most wins of the year and had been crowned the Lady of Racing for 2021.

Jamie Kah and Jacob Brindle seen in images with a white powder. Source: Supplied

But the AirBnb scandal on their fast growing careers and Group 1 wins, was far from their minds that dinner on June 17.

It wasn’t intended on being a big night either, with the group later parting ways, with Brown and Gaudry and Melham going home respectively.

Kah went back to her Somerville estate some 15 minutes away, expecting to finish her night.

But back at the sprawling property where she rides and trains her horses, was housemate and friend since teenagers in their Adelaide hometown, greyhound trainer Jacob Biddell.

Then came the gear change.

It’s understood Biddell and his mate, a starstruck female friend also involved in racing, were ready to party with a bag at the ready.

Slipping on her grey dressing gown over her dinner attire, Kah begrudgingly joined in.

Video from the night, now gone viral on social media, show Kah racking up a mound of white substance on a plate which looks suspiciously like it was bought at Kmart.

As insiders say it doesn’t look like her first rodeo, as Kah expertly divvies the substance out into three fat lines. Biddell sits beside her at the kitchen table with wire champagne muzzles, bottles, vapes and cigarette packets strewn across the marble kitchen bench.

The video does not show Kah or Biddell’s face, but a selfie taken earlier of the three of them sitting at the same setting, with the same grey plate, clearly identifies them.

It’s now understood upset and furious racing insiders are trying to locate and question the woman who took the video without Kah’s consent and subsequently shared it to social media.

As one commented “Jamie needs to find some new mates”.

Kah released a short statement on Friday night after the photos surfaced, saying she was focusing on her physical and mental health and ‘making a full recovery so I can return to racing and be the best person that I can possibly be. I won’t be making further comment.”

On Saturday morning Biddell also released a short statement on social media, to say he would not be making any comments and extraordinarily asking people to please respect his “privacy”.

Jamie Kah and Jacob Brindle seen in images with a white powder. Source: Supplied

Greyhound trainer, friend and housemate of Jamie Kah, Jacob Biddell, issues a statement on Saturday morning in the wake of the white powder scandal. Source: Instagram

The Herald Sun was told racing stewards will be conducting an investigation. Their first priority on Saturday was at Caulfield, the first meet at the racecourse for the year after significant track renovations. Kah’s boyfriend Melham had a book of six rides.

Stewards are expected to conclude their enquiries in a timely manner, after interviewing Kah.

Kah’s latest blow follows a career of incredible highs and lows. It’s understood she has suffered from extreme mental health challenges after the Airbnb party.

She and fiancé, former jockey turned Group One trainer Clayton Douglas, broke up in the wake of the lockdown party. Not long later it emerged she and Melham were in a relationship, after images of the two embracing surfaced while they holidayed in Europe last year.

Kah later made headlines following her shock split with manager, the well liked and respected James Henderson, whose Dynamic Sports and Entertainment Group has a stable of sporting stars including former cricketers Ricky Ponting and Justin Langar, jockeys James McDonald and Damien Oliver and AFL coach Alistair Clarkson.

Greyhound Racing Victoria have also confirmed Mr Biddell will be investigated over the incident.

“Greyhound Racing Victoria’s Integrity Unit will make enquiries of Jacob Biddell in order to be informed of all facts before determining if any Rules of Racing have been breached,” a spokesperson said on Saturday.

The relatively new trainer, who had his first win in June last year, is a long-time friend of the star jockey, who owns a share in Biddell’s top greyhound, Teflon Tears.

Under the Racing Victoria rules, stewards may penalise “any person, who, in their opinion, has been guilty of any dishonest, corrupt, fraudulent, improper or dishonourable action or practice in connection with racing”.It is currently unclear if the scandal is “in connection with racing” and whether stewards could discipline Kah under that rule.