Racing: Hall leads McCoy back to the winner's circle

The champion jockey, Tony McCoy, finally got back among the winners after Diamond Hall cruised away with the bumper at Chepstow yesterday. The Ulsterman had earlier drawn a blank on four Martin Pipe-trained favourites on his first day back at the office since being kept out for three weeks as a result of concussion.

"It's good to get a winner after four beaten favourites and I would think Mr Pipe is tearing his hair out," a relieved McCoy said. "It would have been an understatement to say I would have been really sick if I had to leave the course without a winner."

McCoy now hopes for an injury-free run up to the end of the season to enable him to land the jockeys' championship for the second successive year. "I had hoped to beat Mr Pipe's total of winners, but he has gone well clear of me while I was off for the past three weeks."

At Ripon, Bold Words grittily prevented John Gosden securing his fourth successive win in the Galphay Stakes. Gosden's Handsome Ridge, owned by the footballer David Platt, had been sent off 1-2 to maintain the trainer's stranglehold on the race. The win maintained Ed Dunlop's 100 per cent record from three runners, although the trainer's Fooled You later finished fourth in the maiden.

That race was won in emphatic style by the Sean Woods-trained Green Card, an entry for the 2,000 Guineas who may not be seen again until the Newmarket race on 3 May.