Kielan Woods was gutted when he dislocated a hip on the eve of the Grand National meeting, but he returned to action with a speed that shocked even his consultant and he was soon making up for lost time. His rapid recovery, he is convinced, is in good part down to the expert physiotherapy he received at Oaksey House.
Kielan was riding in a handicap hurdle at Fontwell when he was unseated four flights from home. He had a pretty good idea of what he had done straight away, and he was cursing the timing, as he had some good rides to look forward to at Aintree. They included a Grand National mount on Marble Sands, a live outsider on whom he had won three good races, including a valuable handicap chase at Cheltenham’s prestigious November Meeting.
As it happens, Marble Sands fell early on the second circuit and none of his other intended mounts at Aintree won, but he wasn’t to know that when he lay on the turf at Fontwell, writhing in agony.
Taking up the story he says: “In layman’s terms my hip half came out and I tore all of the ligaments and muscles. I’d broken my hip on the other side years earlier, and that was a lot worse, but as anyone who has dislocated a limb will tell you, it was agony. A doctor put it back in place on the track, which was a relief, and I was then taken to hospital in Chichester, where the x-rays confirmed there were luckily no broken bones.
Richie McLernon was able to drive me home that night and I was able to see a hip specialist the next day at Warwick for MRIs and so on. From there onwards I’d say my rapid recovery was pretty much down to the team at Oaksey House.”
Having ridden competitively over here since 2010 Kielan, now 33, was no stranger to the Oaksey House staff – few jump jockeys based in the south can say they are – and he can’t praise them enough.
Oaksey House has always been a brilliant place,” he says. “Even when I shattered my pelvis and hip years ago it was brilliant, and that was before it was the facility it is nowadays. I spoke to Rob Treviss, the head sports rehabilitation therapist, the night of my injury and when I went down there the next Monday he already had a programme laid out for me.”
He adds: “I live five miles from Stratford racecourse and in traffic it can take the best part of two hours to get to Lambourn, so every time I went I tried to do three sessions instead of just one. I was going down there usually three times a week for three sessions and it was well worth the drive, as when I went back to see the specialist I’d seen at Warwick, Mr Pedro Foguet, he couldn’t believe how quickly I’d recovered.
Mr Foguet is a very experienced hip and lower limb consultant, but he had never heard of Oaksey House because he hadn’t dealt with any horse racing injuries. When I told him what they do there, and the facilities they have, he spent the next ten minutes checking it out on the internet! He thought the level of physiotherapy I’d been receiving was unbelievable, and he certainly didn’t expect me to have been back riding out the last few days.”
Remarkably, having dislocated his hip on Mammies Boy on April 8, Kielan resumed race-riding at Newton Abbot on May 27, just seven weeks later. His first ride back, Babs was only just touched off on the run-in, and his next, Morning Mayhem, at Newton Abbot again a few days later, was a winner.
Appropriately, Morning Mayhem was saddled by Kielan’s former weighing room pal Nick Scholfield, who had also been responsible for the Mammies Boy ride and has made such a promising start to his training career. There was a second winner just a few days after the first, and that’s good going at a time of year when winners are generally hard to come by unless your surname is Bowen or Skelton.
The undoubted star of Kielan’s 2025/26 season was Sixmilebridge, owned by his great supporters The Megsons and trained by Fergal O’Brien, who gave him a second Grade 1 win of his career (Millers Bank at Aintree in 2022 was the first) when making it three wins from three starts over fences in Sandown’s Scilly Isles Novices’ Chase. Sixmilebridge was out of the money at a similar level at Fairyhouse afterwards, but hopes are high that the seven-year-old can resume his upward trajectory when he returns to action.
Sixmilebridge has been a brilliant horse for me and you can put a line through his run at Fairyhouse,” Kielan insists. “It was the right race for him, and the way the race turned out we’d have been kicking ourselves if we hadn’t gone as it was very winnable for a Grade 1. But it just didn’t happen for him.
He was beaten the moment I saw him in the parade ring, then he bolted to the start and was jig jogging down there until the tapes went up. He never jumped, and I’d say it was all probably down to the travelling, so I don’t think he’ll be racing outside the UK again.”
Looking ahead to Sixmilebridge’s first season in open company Kielan says: “He’s got to prove himself again and I expect he’ll start somewhere low key to get back into winning ways, but he’s a good horse and hopefully he’ll go on again now.
“The dream is obviously the King George, and I don’t see why he wouldn’t get three miles.”