Lee to switch to Flat
Lee landed the world’s most famous steeplechase in 2004 on the Ginger McCain-trained Amberleigh House, and rode five Cheltenham Festival winners, including a treble in 2005 on Inglis Drever, No Refuge and Arcalis.
Lee, 36, cited weight issues as the primary reason for his decision, in that he has always found it a struggle to put on enough weight to ride over jumps.
Currently sidelined after a heavy fall at Southwell on February 15, Lee told Racing UK: “I’m going to concentrate on riding on the Flat.
“I’ve always had to work very hard keeping weight on me with training and it’s just fallen off me since the latest fall that I took at Southwell.
“I got home from the hospital and I was 9st 12lb and I got on the scales this morning and I was 8st 12lb, so I’ve taken a stone off in just over five weeks.
“I love riding over jumps and I always have done.
“I got a fall at Huntingdon in 2008 and suffered quite a bad head injury. I actually thought about it then, because I had to work so hard at being a stone above my fighting weight.
“I’ve been very fortunate to win a National, I was top jockey at the Cheltenham Festival in 2005 and I’ve won a Scottish National and a Whitbread (Bet365 Gold Cup). They were great, great days.
“But the great days that I’ve had are in the past and we live in the future. I’m so focussed on what I’m going to have a go at.”
