The Jockey Club has appointed Daniel Cooper as Head of Racing and Clerk of the Course at Haydock Park Racecourse.
Cooper will continue in his current role as Clerk of the Course at both Exeter and Wincanton until the end of the year, when he will begin a handover process with Kirkland Tellwright, who retires in March after 23 years in the role at the Newton-le-Willows racecourse.
Cooper joined The Jockey Club in 2013 after completing the British Horseracing Authority’s Graduate Development Programme and has been Clerk of the Course at Exeter and Wincanton since 2019.
He first became a fully accredited Clerk having been appointed as The Jockey Club’s Trainee Clerk of the Course in 2017. Prior to that he worked as an event manager for The Jockey Club’s London Region - incorporating Epsom Downs, Sandown Park and Kempton Park - including three Derby Festivals. He has also helped to deliver a range of projects for the Group, including fleet management, equine welfare and group health and safety.
Haydock Park is one of the UK’s busiest racecourses and hosts racing under both codes on 32 days each year. Next month it stages its best race of the Flat season, the Group One Betfair Sprint Cup, with its leading Jump contest, the Grade One Betfair Chase, taking place in November.
No stranger to Flat racing, Cooper has supported Clerking at multiple Flat fixtures at Sandown Park and Epsom Downs, as well as support roles at the Cheltenham and Grand National festivals. He also previously trained alongside Kirkland Tellwright at Haydock Park for two years from 2017, before moving to Exeter and Wincanton.
Cooper said: "I am delighted to return to Haydock Park, a course I know well from my training and one which has a rich history and heritage and can be proud of its race programme.
“Haydock Park regularly hosts top class racing throughout the calendar and has been graced by so many great horses over the years, so it is a great honour to be taking over Clerking duties at such a special venue.
"I’m also very much looking forward to sharing the role with Kirkland during the upcoming handover. I’ve got to know him well over the years and the opportunity to tap into his wealth of experience at Haydock Park will be invaluable as I prepare to take over early next year.”
Before moving north Cooper will be overseeing his fifth Haldon Gold Cup and Badger Beers Chase in November.
He added: “I’ve absolutely loved my time at Exeter and Wincanton and will always be incredibly proud of the hard work the teams have put in to developing and improving the tracks and facilities at both courses.
“I’m especially pleased to have played a part in creating the West Country Weekend by positioning the Haldon Gold Cup and the Badger Beers Chase as back-to-back racedays and look forward to both fixtures later this year.”
In his new role Cooper will work closely with Haydock Park’s General Manager, Molly Dingwall, and Dickon White, the North West Regional Director for The Jockey Club.
Molly Dingwall said: “We are thrilled that Daniel is joining us as Clerk of the Course at Haydock Park. He brings a high level of experience to the role following his time at Exeter and Wincanton and the support roles he has played at a significant number of The Jockey Club’s major festivals.”
Dickon White added: “I’m looking forward to Daniel joining the team at Haydock Park and it’s great that he knows the racecourse so well already. I would like to extend my thanks to Kirkland Tellwright for his many years of dedication which stretch back over three decades, and we wish him all the very best for his retirement when it comes.”
