Kielan Woods, born in Athlone, in Central Ireland, was not born into a racing family, but that did not stop him from graduating from the Racing Academy & Centre of Education (RACE) in Kildare. After which, he rode mostly for Caroline Hutchinson, who Woods viewed as a mentor, but her retirement from the training ranks meant he moved to Paul Flynn, who suggested he moved to Britain.   

Woods took the advice and moved from the Emerald Isle to join Oxfordshire-based trainer Charlie Longsdon. Since then, success has kept coming, most notably winning a brace of Grand Annual Chase’s at the Cheltenham Festival, on Croco Bay, trained by Ben Case, in 2019 and Global Citizen, trained by Ben Pauling, in 2022. He also rode his first Grade 1 winner, Millers Bank, trained by Alex Hales, in the Manifesto Novices’ Chase at Aintree in 2022.  

When he’s not riding out or at a racecourse, Woods can be found working with his wife, Christy, who runs a pre-training yard, situated in the heart of the Cotswolds. The second of Woods’ two Grand Annual winners, Global Citizen, has retired to their yard to lead the strings of youngstock and to embark on a career with Christy as her Retraining of Racehorses project.