Barnett's goodbye

14 April 2012

There are not many who would seek a new challenge having masterminded the world's greatest steeplechase through false starts, IRA bomb threats and Animal Rights demonstrations — but Charles Barnett, Aintree's managing director, is made of the right stuff.

The chief executive in waiting of Ascot, now 58, begins his final Grand National meeting today content that he leaves the Liverpool venue in better shape than when he was appointed 15 years ago.

Scroll down to read more:

Heading off to Ascot: Charles Barnett has done a first-class job at Aintree

The three-day Festival has developed into a genuine rival to Cheltenham for the affections of the jumping public with competitive, high-class fields and the world's greatest chase in a far healthier state.

There have been maximum fields of 40 for the Grand National for the past seven years, during a time when better class horses have been attracted to the race.

New grandstands, a new weighing room complex and one of the finest media centres in the world have demonstrated Barnett's acute awareness of substance as well as image.

In a month's time he leaves the delights of Merseyside and the scouse sense of humour for the more refined requirements of Royal Ascot.

Barnett said: "I'll miss all the friends and people I've worked with up here — we've got a fantastic team and Ascot will be a new challenge.

"We have concentrated on certain safety issues such as putting new bellies on the fences. A lot of the modifications (to Becher's and other fences) had been completed before my arrival.

"But we are safety conscious and have put down millions of gallons in the past fortnight to ensure good going. I am very conscious that speed kills but these are championship races."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in