McCoy, Gibson in winning returns

TONY McCOY and Dale Gibson both made triumphant returns to raceriding yesterday after spending time on the injured list.

Champion jumps jockey McCoy, who had been out of action for 27 days after fracturing his shoulder blade and breaking his collar bone in a fall at Wincanton, came back at Folkestone where he had two booked rides.

After finishing fourth on Theme Arena in the opener, McCoy was back among the winners when his second mount Rare Spread scored a runaway victory in the Lympne Novices' Claiming Hurdle taking his seasonal total to 131.

But McCoy admitted after the Martin Pipe-trained 9 to 4 favourite had beaten Scorpion Bay by 16 lengths: "I'm not as fit as I thought I was. I think I needed that first ride to blow the cobwebs away. I certainly felt better for the second ride than the first.

Gibson had been sidelined for five months after sustaining internal injuries in a terrible fall at Beverley. But his frustration was brought to an end as the jockey made a winning comeback at Wolverhampton.