Chris Coley

Chris Coley is a name synonymous with the National Hunt scene and with the provision of Corporate Hospitality facilities at Cheltenham Racecourse.

Chris, in his earlier life, was for 10 years a teacher at Stouts Hill School in South Gloucestershire, where his claim to fame was that he taught English to a certain Stephen Fry who loved the poems of Ted Hughes and still addresses Chris as “Sir” to this current day.

Chris`s early sporting passion was Cricket and in 1978 Chris joined Gloucestershire CCC as their Marketing Manager prior to setting up his own business here in Cheltenham in 1980 with Gloucestershire CCC as his first client. Hence his initial business link was with The Cheltenham Cricket Festival but it was not long before Chris approached the new Manager of Cheltenham Racecourse, a certain young, dynamic Edward Gillespie, with the idea of pitching his first Business Marquee at the Gold Cup Meeting. This marquee was duly pegged down and the current Marquee M30 is still housed on this very first same site.

In the early days the Corporate Hospitality business snowballed and very soon Chris had another 4 marquees at his disposal. The Glass-fronted Boxes soon followed and in the early 90`s Chris made arrangements for over 8,000 customers.

Chris now lives a short gallop away from the racecourse, not far from the helicopter pad and still embraces his passions for both Horse Racing and Cricket. The two sports are neatly intertwined with the Yesnowaitsorries Syndicate in which Chris is the Racing Manager and its driving force. The racing colours are the “scrambled egg”

Chris Coley Racing is also the sponsor of Nigel Twiston-Davies` yard , and hence you will see the Chris Coley Racing logo highlighted on the silks of Nigel`s jockeys as they return triumphantly to the Winners` Enclosure. The Chris ColeyRacing name was very much to the fore on Gold Cup Day this year when Nigel had 3 winners including Imperial Commander, the winner of the Cheltenham Gold Cup itself.

Chris is proud to be a Cheltonian and to have spent virtually all of his life in Gloucestershire. His childhood days were spent at The Highwayman Inn, conveniently sited on the main road between Cirencester and Cheltenham, and in those pre motorway days it was the ideal stopping off point for Owners, Trainers and Jockeys as they journeyed between Lambourn and the West Country racecourses. Names such as Michael Scudamore, Jack Dowdeswell, Jeff King, Johnny Haine, Fred Winter, Bryan Marshall were all frequent visitors and Chris even remembers being taken to the races as a schoolboy by Bruce Hobbs himself.

The family sporting pedigree also runs to Chris`s brother Ian, who at London 2012 will attend his 5^th Olympic Games as the Olympic Shooting Team Manager. Ian is the proud owner of Ian Coley Shooting School near Andoversford, where he runs a Shooting School, Gunshop & Sporting Agency. For more information on Ian Coley click here