RACING:THE TOP Irish amateur jockey Derek O'Connor will miss out on the Cheltenham festival after confirmation of a broken leg sustained while riding in Musselburgh on Thursday.

O’Connor memorably broke his festival duck in 2011 on board Chicago Grey in the National Hunt Chase and also won the Foxhunters on Zemsky.

On Thursday however he suffered a fractured fibula when he fell from the ill-fated Simonsberg in the Eildon Hill Stables Hunters’ Chase. O’Connor was transferred to Edinburgh Royal Infirmary where X-rays revealed a clean break.

He said yesterday: “I’m as well as I can be, and the staff at Edinburgh are making me very comfortable. It’s a clean break of my left fibula and I have a cast just above my knee. I’m likely to be sidelined for between eight and ten weeks. I’m one of the most fortunate jockeys in the world as I never get seriously injured, so this is just one of those things.”