Jockey Dale Swift planning to make a comeback following suspension

Dale Swift, the troubled rider who was last year banned by a BHA-appointed disciplinary panel for testing positive for a prohibited substance, has his heart set on a return to the saddle.

Swift was suspended for 21 months after producing a positive sample that contained benzoylecgonine, a metabolite of cocaine, in September last year – a punishment that was backdated to the time of the test in March of 2017 and ends on Friday, allowing the Flat jockey to dream of a comeback.

Swift, 33, who has not ridden in Britain since April of last year, had a medical at Southwell after racing on Friday and said: "I've applied for my licence and want to come back riding.

"I've been living in Norway for the last six months and I'm going to get a licence to ride in Britain and Scandinavia. I miss the sport and it's all I know."

Originally from Rotherham, Swift also missed six months after testing positive for a banned substance in 2015, but returned in April of the following year and partnered a handful of winners before announcing his intention to quit the sport 12 months later, telling the Racing Post in a candid interview he had become depressed and miserable and had resorted to self-induced vomiting, known as flipping, in a bid to control his weight.

Prior to that, he had been a talented apprentice who won a valuable Glorious Goodwood handicap on Indian Days in 2010, while he became an Ebor-winning rider thanks to Moyenne Corniche's victory in the famous York handicap in 2011.

Happier days: Dale Swift aboard Ebor winner Moyenne CornicheCredit: Mark Cranham

He also became associated with blue-collar gelding Top Notch Tonto, whose famous white blaze briefly threatened to come home in front in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes at Ascot on Champions Day in 2013.

Swift, however, has fought weight problems throughout his career, which began in 2002, and even had a short spell over jumps, while the death of his friend John Patrick Connors in a car crash just before Christmas in 2014 hit him hard.

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