‘Enormous gratitude’ as breeder’s legacy gift benefits injured riders

Jockeys based north of the border can now benefit from services provided by the Injured Jockeys Fund (IJF) in Scotland.

The Ella MacGregor Centre in Galashiels offers physiotherapy and “injury management” on a site convenient for the Borders area racing community.

“This is only possible because the IJF was remembered in the will of the late Ella MacGregor, who owned and ran the Pinkerton Stud at Dunbar in East Lothian,” an IJF spokesperson said. “Her yellow and blue silks were carried to many victories by the likes of Macrobian, who chased home Notley in the Stewards’ Cup, and the successful horses bred there included Kayem, who competed as an eventer for Sir Mark Todd and was taken by him to the Olympics.”

Kelso course physio Libby Lindsay will offer sessions in the new facility, built in partnership with the Scottish Rugby Union on the Heriot-Watt University campus.

“We have wanted to do this for a while,” said IJF chief executive Lisa Hancock. “We are therefore enormously grateful to Ella and her trustees for their generous legacy in making it possible.

“The Ella MacGregor Centre will significantly improve our clinical services and support our activities north of the border and is the first step in expanding our operations in Scotland and supporting IJF beneficiaries of all kinds.”

The late Ms MacGregor also left a significant donation to Retraining of Racehorses for its welfare work. She was based throughout her life near Dunbar in East Lothian, and with her sister Ina ran the Pinkerton Stud, which Ella set up in 1976. They bred racehorses there until the early 2000s.

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