Dettori returns after Covid test delays force him to miss crucial Enable gallop

Frankie Dettori emerges from his latest spell in quarantine to return for one ride at Newmarket this afternoon - a comeback delayed by the government's current backlog of Covid-19 testing.

Dettori was supposed to spend only eight days in self-isolation at his home near Newmarket following his trip to France to ride Stradivarius on September 13, but it ran over due to delays with the return of his Covid-19 test which finally gave him the all-clear.

Dettori had been desperate to return to ride Enable work on the Newmarket gallops on Wednesday morning but did not get the all clear until 11am yesterday meaning he had to miss out.

Delays over the confirmation of his test results meant he is only booked for one ride at Newmarket this afternoon, Last Sunset for his old mentor Saeed bin Suroor in the 1.50.

Newmarket Thursday card

Dettori said: "I must have got caught up in this backlog of Covid-19 tests as I only got my negative result back on Wednesday at 11am. I would have liked to have been out before then to ride Enable work on Wednesday but I had to stay away from the yard. That was something I was looking forward to but after the results did finally arrive I did go and see her last night."

The government's test-and-trace programme has been overwhelmed with demand in recent weeks resulting in a much slower turnaround.

The most recent available figures, for the week between September 3 and September 9, showed just one third of “in-person” tests had results back within a day, a dramatic fall on the 66.5 per cent the week before.

Dettori added: "The NHS are obviously snowed under with testing at the moment and I'm just glad I got mine back eventually. I won't be riding out on Thursday morning but I hope to get back on Enable at the weekend."

Dettori, who first had a spell in self-isolation after returning from Deauville in August, will have to go through the whole testing procedure again after he rides Enable in the Arc on Sunday week.

That eight-day quarantine, for elite sportspeople only, will rule him out of the Dubai Future Champions Festival at Newmarket on October 9 and 10 when he had been set to partner the fancied Indigo Girl for John Gosden in the Group 1 Fillies' Mile.

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