Frankie Dettori and David Loder made a winning return to action in Britain when sharing an easy victory through Westbound Road at Lingfield yesterday. Loder is back training at Newmarket following two years supervising Godolphin's two-year-olds at Evry in France, while Dettori has been riding in Dubai this winter.
And Westbound Road, lead horse for the 1999 Sagitta 2,000 Guineas hero Island Sands, outclassed the opposition. Supporters of the 2 to 5 favourite in the Res Maiden never had an anxious moment as the four-year-old cantered home 11 lengths clear of Fly With Me.
"It's nice to kick off with a winner," said Dettori. "It's great to get David back in this country and what a way to start. We had a lot of success together and I missed him dearly this last two years." He admitted that an all-weather maiden at Lingfield was a bit of come down after the Dubai World Cup meeting last weekend.
"But I'm sure that in a couple of weeks when Newmarket comes round then racing will take a different shape and we'll all get excited and straight back into the season.
"I'll soon be going back to Dubai for the trials and we'll soon be having the Oaks there on April 14th, so I've still got one more trip. "Then I guess we'll be gearing up for the Craven and obviously the Kentucky Derby is just round the corner."
