Doctors at the Coventry hospital where Tony McCoy, who suffered a juddering fall at Warwick, spent Saturday night, are optimistic about his chances of returning to action in time to ride at the Cheltenham Festival in March.

There was great concern about the champion jockey who was diagnosed with a fractured spine after he was thrown to the ground when his mount, Arnold Layne, crashed to the turf during the Classic Chase.

However, Gee Bradburne, PA to McCoy, said yesterday that the champion was in a stable condition.

"He has fractured his T12 in his lower back but is stable and there's no neurological involvement," she said. "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.

"He's in good spirits this morning but he's pretty un-comfortable," she added of the 12-times champion, who is in University Hospital Walsgrave.

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 his recovery. "The fact the doctors are quite optimistic about him making the Festival is lifting him, I think."

McCoy was due to take part at the big Leopardstown meeting in Ireland yesterday, although he had no mount in the feature race, the Pierse Hurdle, which was won by 10-1 chance Barker, with Brave Right (33-1) second, Silver Jaro (14-1) third, and Roman Villa (9-1) fourth.

The winner gave James Barrett, who has been training for less than a year, his biggest success yet. Former assistant to British trainer Charlie Mann, Barrett's winner was ridden with his usual fine sense of timing by Timmy Murphy.

"I thought the second horse had got away from us." he said, "but it is a long way up the straight in that ground and we got there in time."

A jubilant Barrett said: "If he hadn't have won so well last time he would never have run here as the plan was to go novice chasing.

"To win the Pierse Hurdle with only your fifth winner is amazing - things aren't going so bad. That was awesome. We were afraid of the ground but Timmy said he handled it and they were going so fast it suited him.

"I was happy that he stayed two-and-a-half miles beforehand and he has galloped all the way to the line. He dropped the bit and jumped and travelled well throughout and everything just went right for him. Rounding the final bend, Roman Villa looked the likeliest winner but he could not quicken in the heavy going.

The hot favourite, Do The Trick, fell at the third from home, giving Paddy Flood a crushing fall. The jockey was reported to be suffering from concussion.

Aside from young Barrett, the day belonged to Ruby Walsh, who won the first three races, on Psycho (13-8), Scotsirish (7-2) and Glencove Marina (11-4).

Meanwhile, Seb Sanders, Britain's joint-champion jockey, has been referred to the BHA after passing the trigger point of 24 days' suspension in the last year for whip offences.

Sanders failed by a head to win a maiden at Lingfield on Saturday but incurred the wrath of the local stewards in the process. They found Sanders guilty of excessive use of the whip and not giving his mount time to respond in the 1m 2f Come Jumping Here on January 21st Maiden Stakes.

Stipendiary steward Terence Brennan, said: "Sanders has broken the rules in using his whip 14 times in the last one- and-a-half furlongs and a couple of times in quick succession without giving his horse time to respond."