Galway jockey Lee is still going flat out for winners

Date Published: 12-Dec-2012

TODAY, it looks like a decision that he should have made years ago, but can you imagine the private agony Graham Lee went through last spring when contemplating switching codes as a jockey cross-channel. At 36, his sporting career had reached a crossroads and he wasn’t found wanting in making the hard call.

The Galway jockey had been forced to revaluate his position in racing after unusual but ongoing problems with weight – he was struggling to put on enough condition to ride over jumps – and becoming increasingly injury prone. Most National Hunt jockeys have an ongoing battle with the scales in trying to keep the pounds at bay, but Lee’s light-framed body meant that he was battling the opposite problem in not being heavy enough.

Lee had to work particularly hard in the gym to put on the necessary extra poundage to ride over hurdles and chases. It meant he was generally operating a stone over his fighting weight. Still, few racing people were prepared for Lee embarking on a major career change by switching to the flat last March at an age which would have made such an adjustment all the more difficult to complete successfully.

Having steered Amberleigh House to an unforgettable triumph in the 2004 Aintree Grand National and crowned top jockey at the 2005 Cheltenham National Hunt festival after steering Arcalis, No Refuge and Inglis Drever to Grade One victories, it wasn’t as if Lee was a journeyman jockey in the UK. He also had a secure stable job with Ferdy Murphy in the North of England and was still picking up no shortage of outside rides.

Some might think that riding on the flat isn’t much different to going over jumps, but try telling that to a jockey who is more familiar with campaigning on heavy ground over three and a half miles than five furlong sprints on quick underfoot conditions. There was no guarantee either that the flat trainer fraternity would provide Lee with sufficient opportunities to prove that he had the ability to make the switchover. It was a big gamble.

Ultimately, however, his brave decision has been vindicated, and in spectacular fashion. Like Jim Crowley, who made a similar transition before him, Lee was quick to make an impression on the level and, initially, enjoyed his biggest flat win when steering Maarek to victory in the Group 3 Chipchase Stakes at Newcastle in late June.

Subsequently, the Stewards Cup at Goodwood, was to provide him with his most prestigious success of the campaign.

It was a venue he had never even visited before and Lee was facing the starter in one of the most fiercely contested sprint handicaps of the season, but he couldn’t have timed his challenge better in getting the Jim Goldie trained Hawkeyethenoo up in the last stride on the far rail. It still took a photo finish to decide if what would become Scotland’s first ever winner of the race had edged out Imperial Guest, but Lee had judged things to perfection on the willing 9/1 chance.

The popular Galway jockey, who steered Overturn to land the Guinness Hurdle in Ballybrit just two years ago, continued to prove his worth during the remainder of the turf campaign, ending up eighth in the Jockeys’ Championship with an impressive haul of 87 winners. Lee, however, was in no mood to take a break and in recent weeks has continued to ply his trade on the admittedly unglamorous all-weather circuit.

Last week, he capped an incredible start to the first year of his reinvention as a flat jockey by riding his 100th winner of 2012 at Wolverhampton when Prophets Pride obliged in the Auction Maiden Stakes on the card. That represented an outstanding milestone for Lee to reach and such has been his startling impact on the level, Lee is being quoted as low as 8/1 to win next year’s Jockeys’ Championship. To say the least, he has got a renewed lease of life in the saddle. Sometimes, fortune favours the brave.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.