Chris Giles

Chris Giles died on Sunday 8 November 2026 at the London Clinic hospital in London of aspiration pneumonia, aged 62. His death was reported by the Racing Post on 11 November, in a week in which racing also mourned jockey Tom O'Brien and apprentice Izzy Neale. He was survived by his wife Debora, five children, his parents and grandchildren. His funeral was arranged for 10 December 2026 at Ayr Crematorium.

Chris Giles was born in Cheltenham on 18 September 1964, where his father Michael was working for the Road Transport and General Insurance Company. When he was two the family returned to Scotland, and in 1967 his father founded Giles Insurance Brokers. Giles said his love of racing came from his mother's family, Italian immigrants from Tuscany: as a young child he watched point to pointers at the now closed Bogside racecourse with his grandmother, and later went racing at Ayr. He boarded at school in Edinburgh and studied English at Oxford University.

Giles joined Giles Insurance Brokers in 1988, when it had three offices and 20 staff. In 1995 he and his brother led a family buyout and converted the partnership into a limited company. Private equity investors Gresham and Charterhouse followed, and in 2013 the firm, by then with 42 offices and about 2,000 employees, was sold to the American broker Arthur J Gallagher for 233 million pounds. In 2014 he founded the broker PIB, which was sold by The Carlyle Group to Apax in 2021, and he remained an investor in it.

In racing he started with trainer Lucinda Russell before moving his horses to Paul Nicholls, where buying Tricky Trickster, winner of the 2010 Aon Chase, established him in the yard. Many of his best horses were owned with Jared Sullivan's Potensis, including Silviniaco Conti, joint champion steeplechaser of 2013 to 2014, Zarkandar, For Non Stop, Sanctuaire, Bitofapuzzle and Buveur D'Air, whom the pair sold before he won two Champion Hurdles for JP McManus. Other partners included Paul and Ruth Barber, Ged Mason, Peter McGoff and Sir Alex Ferguson.

In his own name he won with Tchico Polos, Hinterland, Greaneteen, Iceo, who took the 2023 Imperial Cup, and Topofthegame, before selling a share in him. Stay Away Fay won the 2023 Albert Bartlett Novices' Hurdle, Rubaud the 2023 Scottish Champion Hurdle, and he was a part owner of Crambo and of 2024 Paddy Power Gold Cup winner Il Ridoto. On the Flat he part owned Tiggy Wiggy, champion two year old filly of 2014 and winner of the Cheveley Park Stakes. In June 2024 he scaled back, offering nine horses in training and a broodmare at the Goffs UK Summer Sale.

Giles had three children from his first marriage, which ended in divorce around 2017, and two young children with his Brazilian wife Debora, with whom he lived in Kensington and spent summers in Lisbon. He supported Rangers and Arsenal and once lived in Cobham, near Sandown Park, which he called his home course.

Giles's colours were among the best known in National Hunt racing for more than a decade. In 2023 he put his record at 22 Grade 1 wins, and he described the welcome in the Cheltenham winner's enclosure as the biggest buzz in the sport. He was remembered for his loyalty to Paul Nicholls, his openness about the prices he paid and his love of the jump racing community.