Mackay hoping to resume race-riding at beginning of next month

Nicky Mackay is targeting a return to race-riding on September 1 following the broken leg he sustained in a freak accident at Chemsford in March.

The 32-year-old underwent a five-hour operation after being thrown from the three-year-old maiden Royalistic in a horrific incident at the Essex track when the pair veered right across the track at the top of the home bend before smashing through the rail half a furlong out.

Although he was badly injured, Mackay has defied the doctors who first predicted he would be out for a year, and is close to a comeback after riding out for his boss John Gosden for the last month. Although he is fit to raceride, Mackay is keen to wait another two weeks to make sure he is fully fit for the busy autumn season.

He said: "I'm planning to be back on a racecourse and wearing a set of silks on September 1. It's been a frustrating time but not as long as was first predicted.

"Basically, I broke my femur which evidently is the hardest bone in your body to break and the surgeons said they'd only ever seen it before in car crashes. It was a clean break and then it turned the other way and it was a bit of a jigsaw putting it all back together. "

After physio, Mackay returned to the saddle in July and is now nearing full fitness. He added: "I'm getting looser the more I ride out and I'm raring to go. Hopefully while Rab Havlin is off the boss will look my way and get me going again through September and I'm sure the autumn and winter will be as busy as it usually is."

The jockey also had news of his father Alan who suffered much worse injuries in a fall of his own in Newmarket shortly after his.

Mackay snr was paralysed from the waist down after a gallops fall but has recently been released from Stoke Mandeville Hospital and returned to Newmarket.

His son said: "Dad is doing well and back in town but is just waiting for a house to be sorted. He just gets on with things and never moans despite his injuries. He's a remarkable man."