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The state-of-the-art centre for jockeys not only gives jockeys and their families tremendous physical, mental and holistic support, but it’s also a home away from home. Kate Johnson visits the Injured Jockeys Fund’s hub in Lambourn

- Kate Johnson

TWO pieces of kit mark out the gym at Lambourn’s Oaksey House as different. Alongside the rowing machines, weights and mats is a mechanical horse, parallel to a mirror, and a waist-high wooden frame with a tabletop and sheepskin-lined straps to support someone trying to stand up. They’re a visible reminder of who this place serves.

The Injured Jockeys Fund (IJF) was set up by Lord Oaksey (then John Lawrence; he inherited his title in 1971) to help two jockeys, Tim Brookshaw and Paddy Farrell, who both suffered career-ending falls in the 1964 Grand National, which left them paralysed. Since then, it has helped well over a thousand jockeys and paid out over £20m in charitable assistance.

When the IJF opened Oaksey House in 2009 as a specialist rehab centre, Brough Scott, its then chairman, said of the eponymous Lord, “What John has taught us is that while winning, obsessing about winning, is the very essence of racing and indeed of much of life, there is honour and satisfaction in thinking about the losers too. The IJF was, and is, dedicated to those in need.”

That includes professionals, amateurs, point-to-pointers, apprentices, conditionals; anyone who has ever held a jockey’s licence and their families, all eligible for free, confidential, holistic support and help for their entire lifetime. A truly remarkable commitment.

When Oaksey House practice manager Jayne Matthews started working here, she recalls a “rotund man in his eighties with a bad knee”. She asked tentatively if he’d ever held a jockey licence.

“I have, yes,” he replied. “I actually won the Grand National.”