Racing start for new £3m centre that will treat injured jockeys

Construction on the centre, the brainchild of the indomitable Injured Jockeys Fund vice president, is expected to be completed by the end of the year to coincide with the 50th anniversary celebrations of the popular charity.

A single story state-of-the-art-building, it will include a gym, hydrotherapy pool, treatment rooms and respite accommodation.

It is hoped that Jack Berry House, which will be built by a team headed by Huddersfield-based Illingworth and Gregory Ltd, will compliment the work of the IJF’s pioneering Oaksey House in Lambourn which has been an unrivalled success since it opened nearly five years ago.

The intention is that stricken riders will not have to travel 200 miles to Berkshire for treatment so that they can return to the saddle as quickly as possible.

Beneficiaries could include Malton-based jump jockey Danny Cook – Brian Ellison’s stable jockey hopes to return from a broken leg at the end of the month – while one-to-one care could be given to individuals like Brian Toomey who continues to defy doctors with his recovery from life-threatening head injuries that he suffered in a fall in July last year.

Berry, a former trainer who was born in Leeds, was among those to set up the IJF after Yorkshire rider Paddy Farrell was paralysed following a horrific fall at The Chair fence in the 1964 Grand National.

“It is a great honour to be allowed to kick off the building work at Jack Berry House even if they are not quite letting me build it myself!” said Berry with characteristic humour.

“Everyone knows my lifelong passion for the work of the Injured Jockeys Fund and this project in particular, and it is very fitting we hope to build the entire centre in 2014, our 50th anniversary year.”

His views were echoed by IJF chief executive Lisa Hancock who said last night: “We are thrilled that work will start at Jack Berry House this week.

“The support we have received for the project has been staggering and of the £3m needed we have ring fenced £2m already. We are hoping the remaining million will come through fundraising over the next 10 months or so and before we open the doors next winter.”