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Paul Barber, award-winning Somerset cheesemaker and racehorse owner – obituary
He had his greatest racing success with Denman, the chaser who won 14 of his 24 races, including the 2008 Cheltenham Gold Cup
Paul Barber, who has died aged 80, was a Somerset dairy farmer and racehorse owner who once declared it was his ambition to milk 1,000 cows and own a Cheltenham Gold Cup winner; he ended up owning 3,000 cows and his silks were twice carried to victory in the Gold Cup, first by See More Business in 1999 and by Denman in 2008.
It was with the mighty Denman – nicknamed “The Tank” – that Barber, a quiet English gentleman of countryside stock, became a familiar figure to racegoers. He and his trainer Paul Nicholls unearthed the chaser in 2005 at Adrian Maguire’s yard in Ireland and, as Barber recalled: “The moment we saw him Paul said: ‘I’m going to have him’. I replied: ‘No, I am’.” Barber bought the horse for £120,000, then sold a half-share to the professional gambler Harry Findlay.
Denman, who loved charging along at the head of the field, won 14 of his 24 races, including the 2008 Cheltenham Gold Cup, when he beat his stable companion Kauto Star (trained by Nicholls but owned by Clive Smith). Also twice, under top weight, he won the Hennessy Gold Cup at Newbury, matching the achievement of Arkle and Mandarin.
Denman’s crowd-pleasing jumping and hell-for-leather gallop from fence to fence embodied all the best qualities of the classical staying chaser, making him a firm favourite with the racing and betting public.
At the 2008 Gold Cup as he crossed the line seven lengths clear of Kauto Star, the commentator yelled “Relentless and remorseless... Denman the Destroyer!” The race took its toll, but did not stop him being runner-up the next three years in succession.
“He knows he’s boss,” Barber explained. “When he was in his box in training, he used to put his backside against the door to say: ‘Nobody comes in today.’ He’s a character. If he were human, he would be a hard man.”
The partnership between the flamboyant Harry “The Dog” Findlay and his understated dairy farmer co-owner – “the sort of figure you can imagine having been born in a mini-Barbour,” as one commentator put it – added to the Denman legend. Race-goers called them the “Odd Couple” and though they got on well, they disagreed about whether Denman should be entered for the Grand National.
That was in the autumn of the horse’s career and Findlay would have liked the horse to run, “because I knew Denman would have won it”. But Barber, who regarded the horse as a member of his family, demurred. “He went to heaven and back for us,” he explained. “So you’ve got to be sentimental about him.”
When Denman made his final Gold Cup appearance at Cheltenham before his retirement in 2011, as the runner-up he received cheers as loud as those for the winner, Long Run. “It’s very emotional for me,” admitted Barber. “I feel like pushing the wife over to one side of the bed and putting him in the middle.”
Paul Kelson Barber was born on New Year’s Eve 1942 at his family dairy farm, Manor Farm, in the village of Ditcheat, near Shepton Mallet, Somerset. The farm – covering some 3,000 acres in Somerset and Dorset – had been in the Barber family for generations, and in 1833 Paul’s ancestor Daniel Barber began making cheese.
Even though he himself was allergic to cheese, Paul Barber was a driving force behind the growth of the dairy and cheese business. At the 2011 World Cheese Awards his flagship brand, 1833 Vintage Reserve Cheddar, won a gold and super gold medal and took the trophy for Best Mature Cheddar in the World. The Barbers are now the world’s oldest surviving cheddar-makers.
The success of his business gave Barber the means to pursue his passion for jump racing. Early on he owned point-to-pointers, bagging his first win with the mare Crazy Slave at the Wilton Hunt meeting at Badbury Rings in 1969, and his first big-race win – the Black & White Whisky Gold Cup at Ascot – in 1977 with Artifice.
His horses were trained by John Thorne, then Jim Old, until 1991, when an advertisement in the Racing Post for a replacement trainer and tenant at Barber’s stables brought an application from the former jump jockey Paul Nicholls.
Barber was impressed by the young man’s enthusiasm and drive and took him on, encouraging him with advice and guidance that allowed him to build a stellar career. Nicholls likened his relationship with Barber to having a second father.
Their first Grade 1 winner was the novice chaser See More Indians. But they hit the headlines with See More Business, owned jointly with John Keighley, which won the King George VI Chase in 1997 before romping to victory in the Cheltenham Gold Cup in 1999 at odds of 16-1.
Barber, with a variety of co-owners over the years, had other big-race victories with chasers including the Queen Mother Champion Chase winner Call Equiname, and the dual King George VI Chase winner Clan Des Obeaux, all trained by Nicholls (the latter, part-owned by the former Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson, was retired earlier this year).
In 2010 Barber, Findlay and Nicholls enjoyed what they described as “the last supper” in the dining room at the sales ring in Doncaster, when Barber and Findlay dissolved one of the most entertaining and successful partnerships in racing after watching their last seven horses sold at auction.
Denman enjoyed a happy retirement at Barber’s stables in Ditcheat until his death in 2018.
Paul Barber’s first marriage, to Paula, was dissolved. He is survived by his second wife Marianne, former wife of the trainer John Ryall, and by two sons from his first marriage.
Paul Barber, born December 31 1942, died June 18 2023