McCoy may befit for festival

Tony McCoy is hoping to be fit for the Cheltenham Festival despite suffering a back injury in a fall at Warwick on Saturday.

The champion jockey fractured a vertebrae when parting company with Arnold Layne in the totesport.com Classic Chase, prompting fears he could miss the festival.

However, McCoy's personal assistant, Gee Bradburne, issued an upbeat bulletin on his condition yesterday. "He has a stable fracture of the T12 vertebrae but there is no neurological damage, ie he is moving everything fine," confirmed Bradburne.

"He's hoping to be back in time for the festival and the doctors' prognosis is good. They say he might be out for six weeks but we really don't know at this stage."

McCoy is expected to ride Exotic Dancer in the totesport Cheltenham Gold Cup in nine weeks' time, and Bradburne believes the thought of the festival will spur on his recovery.

Meanwhile, Willie Mullins believes Ebaziyan could still challenge for major hurdling honours this season. The seven-year-old created a huge surprise when winning the Supreme Novices' Hurdle at odds of 40 to 1 at last year's Cheltenham Festival.

However, Ebaziyan failed to win in five subsequent starts before ending his losing run with victory in a two-and-a-half-mile Punchestown heat on Saturday.

Although the grey made hard work of that win, Mullins argues Ebaziyan's form before Cheltenham did not make him an obvious candidate for victory. "If you go back a year and watch him winning in Thurles before he won the Supreme Novices' and you couldn't see him winning that either," he said.

"It was a present of a race for him and I had to stick him in it. It was for winners of two and we had to go there. I think better better ground suits him."