British National Hunt jockey Felix De Giles has suffered devastating injuries in a fall that will prevent him from challenging for this season’s champion rider title.
De Giles, 36, began his career at Nicky Henderson’s Seven Barrows yard in Lambourn before moving to France in 2015.
There, he has steadily built a successful career, culminating in 2023 when he won the French jump racing championship with 92 winners.
This season, he was on course to repeat the feat, already racking up 71 wins and more than €2.7m in prize money.
That all changed last Sunday at Auteuil, the French equivalent of Cheltenham, during the Prix Jack Barbe hurdle race when De Giles suffered catastrophic injuries after falling from his horse, Sunny Swing.
De Giles was mid-field in a bunched 18-runner race when Sunny Swing fell heavily to the right at a hurdle opposite the grandstand, where the ground is often treacherous.
The horse appeared to have plenty of room going into the fourth obstacle but took an extra stride, flipped over, and threw De Giles to the ground.
Two other horses were involved: one was brought down and the other galloped over him, leaving De Giles with two broken legs and a broken arm,as well as a fractured femur and dislocated hip.
Remarkably, De Giles remained conscious throughout.
‘The arm doesn’t feel too bad, but the legs are pretty swollen,’ he later told The Telegraph.
‘Unfortunately I was conscious throughout. I saw my right leg was snapped but I have no idea how I managed to break both. They did all the repairs in one operation, the arm, both legs and put the hip back.’
De Giles faces a lengthy recovery and is expected to be out for around six months, with the hope of returning for the spring campaign.
He explained: ‘I have to stay lying down for three weeks. Because of the hip I can’t even sit up in a wheelchair and whether I do that here or in a hospital nearer home I’m not sure yet. It hasn’t been decided yet.’
‘I’d have probably caught the leader (Lucas Zuliani) in the jockeys’ title, which ends on January 31, because I tend to do well at Cagnes and Pau in the winter, but that’s all in the past now,’ he said.
De Giles was second in the title race this season, just five winners behind the leader. He has previously ridden in the Grand National and is a regular on French-trained runners at Cheltenham.
His fall comes shortly after similar incidents involving jockeys Jim Crowley and Trevor Whelan, who suffered serious injuries at York last month.
Crowley admitted he was fortunate to escape with broken bones.
Born in Stanton Fitzwarren, near Swindon, Wiltshire, De Giles rode his first point-to-point winner in March 2005 on Hi Rudolph.
He had his first ride under rules at Cheltenham the following month, finishing fourth on Father Jim, trained by his father.
This latest setback is a huge blow to a seasoned jockey who had been aiming to add another championship to his illustrious career, and racing fans across Britain and France will be hoping for a full recovery.
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