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Lee to miss Festival3rd March 2008
Graham Lee will not be riding at the Cheltenham Festival as he continues to recover from injury.
The jockey has been out of action since fracturing his jaw in two places when kicked following a fall at Huntingdon in early February.
Following surgery it had initially been hoped Lee would be back in the saddle for Prestbury Park's four-day jamboree. However, his agent Richard Hale confirmed: "He's fine really but he won't be back for Cheltenham.
"He won't be allowed to ride there and that's just the way it is. He's consulted with Dr (Michael) Turner (the British Horseracing Authority's medical adviser) and is hoping to be back for Easter Saturday. That's the earliest he's likely to be back but no firm dates have been set as yet."
Ferdy Murphy is looking forward to Cheltenham but admits the absence of Lee is a huge blow.
The trainer said: "We'll miss him badly. He was a 66/1 runner to make it back and confirmed last weekend that we should start getting organised as things weren't looking good."
"I don't think there was anybody riding like him this year. He was riding fantastic and won some races up here that they'd have been raving about if they were down south.
"He's right at the top of his game now, he's vastly experienced and he's very strong."
Murphy also confirmed Paul Carberry will replace Lee on L'antartique in the Ryanair Chase while Supreme Novices' Hurdle chance Kalahari King will be ridden by Tony Dobbin.