Horse racing-Grand National-winning jockey Lee suffers 'very serious injury'

Jockey Graham Lee is in intensive care after suffering damage to his spinal cord in a fall at Newcastle on Friday, the Injured Jockeys Fund said.

Jockey Graham Lee is in intensive care after suffering damage to his spinal cord in a fall at Newcastle on Friday, the Injured Jockeys Fund said. Lee, who won the 2004 Grand National on Amberleigh House, was taken to hospital after being unseated from mount Ben Macdui as the stalls opened at Newcastle Racecourse.

"Jockey Graham Lee's MRI scan has shown that he has suffered an unstable cervical fracture causing damage to the spinal cord, as well as damage to blood vessels in the mid-cervical region," the Injured Jockeys Fund said in a statement to British media on Sunday. "This is a very serious injury and, at this early time, it is not possible to predict the extent of long-term recovery."

Lee, 47, also won the Gold Cup at Royal Ascot in 2015 on Trip To Paris.