Dean Gallagher yesterday made a dream comeback to the saddle when riding West End Dancer to victory at Folkestone.

The Kildare-born jockey was having his first ride in Britain since July 2nd, having been suspended after testing positive for cocaine.

Riding in the Levy Board Mares' Novices' Handicap Hurdle, Gallagher settled the 5 to 2 second favourite, trained by Philip McEntee, in second place as Pertemps Cindrella set the pace.

Gallagher certainly had his fitness tested as a couple of poor jumps meant he had to scrub his mount along in the back straight.

But his perseverance paid off as he took the lead on the home turn, his mount striding clear to beat Pertemps Cindrella by eight lengths.

"I am absolutely thrilled, it couldn't be better," Gallagher said. "I couldn't have asked for a better start.

"It was a long way from the turn into the straight, it felt like the line was never going to come because the horse was very tired and the ground was very testing.

"But all that work in the gym paid off.

"I've put in a lot of hard work in the last six months and it has all been worth it.

"Myself and Phil go back a long way and it's fantastic to ride a winner for him but it's thanks to a lot of people that I'm here today."

Gallagher admitted to nerves on his arrival at Folkestone but was touched by the reception he received.

He said: "It was like coming home today coming to the races.

"I didn't know how I'd feel, I was bit tense coming in but once I was here everybody treated me like I was here only yesterday.

"The public were very nice to me as we were parading in the paddock which gave me a lot of confidence."

Gallagher, whose other mount Eviyrn was unsuccessful in the finale, travels to Musselburgh today where his mounts include Leviathan for his retainer, owner Paul Green.

"I've just been on the phone to Mr Green, he's been a tower of strength for me, he's always been someone I've been able to phone up and talk to," Gallagher added.

"We're on the same wavelength and we've got a very good professional relationship."

All-weather racing in Britain suffered another blow with the loss of this yesterday's meeting at Wolverhampton.

An inspection found the fibresand track was unfit for racing, following sustained bad weather over the past week.

It came just three days after the controversial late abandonment of a televised all-weather Flat fixture at Lingfield, whose meeting today is the subject of a precautionary inspection.

Demand for tickets for Tote Cheltenham Gold Cup day (March 15th) is so high that two enclosures are already sold out.

No tickets are available for the Club or Tattersalls enclosures while less than 1,000 tickets remain for the Courage Best enclosure.

Tickets for all three enclosures remain on sale for the other two days of the Festival (March 13th-14th).

For the second successive meeting, there will be no racing over fences at Cork on Saturday. Instead, the maiden hurdle will be divided three ways to make a seven-race card.

The chase course was also unraceable for the track's St Stephen's Day meeting.