Neil Chalmers was born in Oxford on September 25, 1980, the son of Andy Chalmers, who ran The Lamb pub in Wantage. Neil’s older brothers, Gary and Lee, became chef and chief barman there. The brothers both weighed between 10st and 11st whereas Neil was on the small side.
It wasn’t until he left school that he ever thought of riding as a career. Until then he hadn’t even sat on a racehorse, but after sitting on a few at Graham McCourt’s livery yard he knew that being a jockey was what he wanted to do.
The seeds were sown and the 16-year-old went to the British Racing School in Newmarket. He completed a nine-week course there and then joined Lord Huntingdon’s stable at West Ilsley. Neil never had a ride for him as he broke his wrist and was out of action for three months, but when Lord Huntingdon retired he sent Neil to his brother-in-law Ian Balding.
Balding’s 11-year-old Pay Homage provided Neil with his first ride in public when finishing third at Warwick on May 29, 1999. He had four more rides that season but had to wait until the following year for his first winner. That came courtesy of Palawan, also trained by Balding, in a five-furlong race at Windsor on June 12, 2000. That was Neil’s sole success of the season from just 10 rides.
Andrew Balding took over the licence from his father at the start of 2003 and it was Neil, then still claiming 7lb, who provided the rookie trainer with his first official winner, when scoring on Easter Ogil at Lingfield on January 11.
That month of January 2003 was a good one for Neil, producing nine winners, beating his total number of eight wins the previous year. He ended the season with a personal best tally of 27, and that was despite dislocating a collarbone when Akebono came down in a five-horse pile-up at Warwick in July.
Neil remained at Balding’s Kingsclere stables throughout his career but had plenty of outside winners for trainers such as Sheena West, John Bridger and Mick Appleby. His last three Flat turf seasons produced scores of nine in 2009, 14 in 2010 and 13 in 2011.
Having relinquished his licence, Neil continues to ride out for Andrew Balding each morning, after which he works for Charlie Vigors of Hillwood Stud, where from November to May he is involved with breeze-up horses, preparing them for the day of the breeze-up and getting to know their quirks and habits.
With ever more emphasis being placed on the clock, the aim is to hit the two-furlong pole running and getting maximum effort in the final furlong to record a fast time. As a former jockey, he is now much sought after at the breeze-ups and can ride anything from 10 to 15 horses during the sale.
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