Seemed a really nice guy

Sad news today that Paul Barber has died. Both Paul and his brother Richard were very involved in racing and point to pointing in Somerset and beyond for so many years. I first met Paul and Marianne Barber when Jim Old became a tenant at Ditcheat. The yard was just yards from The Manor House where Paul lived. I had a couple of horses trained there with Jim before he moved on to Barbury Castle and much later I had a share in So Now with Paul Nicholls by which time the Ditcheat yard was far bigger. I was a pig farmer so knew Paul and Richard through that route as well. RIP.

Very sad news but what a life he had..

Back in the early/mid-90s he used sometimes to pop into Mr Hughes' incredibly pokey little betting shop that opened for a while in Castle Cary. If he had a horse running away from the local track, he'd drive over to watch the race and  have a fiver or a tenner on (his older brother Richard was supposed to be a more serious punter). He'd cheerfully pass the time of day with the agricultural labourers and the itinerants who made a living doing a bit of this and that as they dropped in from the old Horsepond Inn next door.

A happy glimpse of how life still was in the Blackmore Vale before it started to be gentrified.

Both were farmers and racing fans who were very good at breeding and pointing in the case of Richard and finding good chasers in the case of Paul. Richard started on the flat with Paul Cole and they jointly owned a good horse called Artifice with John Thorne. I remember Richard having a treble at Bath all ridden by David Dinely a claimer with Paul Cole. Richard also tipped me See More Business for the Gold Cup. He trained him as a pointer before he went to Paul Nicholls and Richard was always closely involved with the horse. It was the year he won the Gold Cup and Richard told me that he had worked in blinkers and was a different horse. The rest is history. Great memories.