Lisa Rowe, clerk and manager of Warwick Racecourse, is leaving to take charge at Haydock Park.

Rowe (28) will fill the same role at the course, just outside Liverpool, but will also be manager of Chester races and become assistant clerk at Aintree, home of the Grand National.

She has spent four and a half years in Warwick and has overseen the redevelopment of the course, which is set to be completed by the end of the year 2000. She is still the only female clerk in British racing.

She said:

"These things don’t come up very often and I am very excited. I have had a wonderful time at Warwick and will be very sad to leave the area.

"It will be a similar job at Haydock but it is a class one course with 29 meetings. They have a Group One race with big prize money so it is a step up for me.

"I start on 29 March and the next meeting is on 3 April, and then it is the National so it will be a very busy few weeks for me. The organisation is massive for the National and I have already been travelling up every week for meetings about the event.

"I am disappointed not to see the reconstruction of the grandstand here at Warwick through to the end but I shall come back to keep in touch. We have just gone to tender on the building work which will cost around £3 million.

"I hope I have increased the profile of the course and made it more competitive."