Point-to-point ace Barber set to train under rules this season

Jack Barber, Britain's champion point-to-point conditioner, will train under rules this season.

Barber, 25, has saddled 101 point-to-point winners during the past two seasons and has been a regular face at meetings in the south of England, but says his fiancee Jade Walters will now handle horses for the amateur code.

"At the end of each season I lose a number of horses who go on to run under rules for other trainers and this year it looked likely I'd lose more than normal, and they weren't certain to be replaced," Barber said.

"It felt like the right time to do it, and Jade and I are getting married in the summer, so the Barber name will continue to be involved in point-to-pointing. I’ve been champion for two years and hoping to make it three this season."

Barber worked for multiple champion jumps trainer Paul Nicholls after leaving school and rode 56 point-to-point winners, plus six under rules, but at 6ft 4in he was destined to become a trainer, and his family's Somerset farm was ideally placed near gallops used by Harry Fry and Anthony Honeyball.

They were created by Barber's grandfather Richard, Britain's leading trainer of point-to-pointers on numerous occasions and who saddled four winners of Cheltenham's Foxhunter Chase.

Earthmover (right) heads to victory in the 2004 Foxhunter for Richard Barber

Barber, who could have his first runners under rules towards the end of the summer after the pointing season ends on June 17, added: "Point-to-pointing is so good for bringing on young horses, so we want to stay involved, and we're lucky we have three separate yards. Bob Buckler trained from one, so it has been licensed in the past, and I hope to get it passed once I've completed my final training module.

"We've had up to 52 horses here at times, with pointers and pre-trainers, and I hope to maintain that sort of figure, but it will be hard.

"Paul [Nicholls] was the first person I told about my plans and he was happy, and said he would continue to send young horses here for Jade to train."