ANDREW Tinkler, sidelined last week with a broken collarbone, is confident of being back in action in time for the start of the Cheltenham Festival, now less than three weeks away.

The Malton-born riding sensation, who is among the leaders in this season's conditional jockeys' championship, suffered his setback not on the racecourse, but in a spill on the schooling grounds at his boss Nicky Henderson's Lambourn yard in Berkshire.

"I was riding a novice over fences and he made a 'novicey' mistake and came down with me. I knew straight away that I'd broken something," said Tinkler, whose initial fears were confirmed at Swindon Hospital.

"The fracture showed up on the X-rays, but, luckily, it's clean break and there was no displacement of the bones," he said.

Tinkler, who has been receiving physiotherapy on the injury since then, has also consulted Dr Michael Foy, a surgeon regularly called on by injured jockeys.

"I have to go back to hospital for more X-rays early next week, and assuming things are going well with the healing process, I hope to be riding again the following week," said Tinkler. "There's never a good time to have an injury, but you always have to remind yourself that it could have been worse."

The teenager can at least count himself luckier than his stablemate Marcus Foley, who will definitely miss the festival after breaking his arm in a fall at Ascot last Saturday.

What a difference a week can make. The previous Saturday, Foley had won the valuable Tote Gold Trophy at Newbury on Geos, a ride he inherited from Mick Fitzgerald, Henderson's number one jockey, who is also sidelined at present with a fractured arm, following a Sandown spill on February 7.

"At the beginning of this month, I had three jockeys, now I haven't got one," said Henderson, highlighting the high-risk calling of the riding brigade over jumps.

Updated: 10:11 Wednesday, February 25, 2004