Balding Stable Leads the Charge After Stellar 2024

[Wandering Eyes]

A special aspect of British racing is the existence of some spectacular country estates devoted solely to the purpose of breeding and training racehorses. For anyone with a love of the turf, names such as Kingsclere, Manton and Beckhampton have resonated down the years. 

We owe a debt of gratitude to those who ensure that they continue in this modern era, with their swathes of land so attractive to developers and their historic buildings so expensive to maintain. Andrew Balding's base at Park House Stables has subsumed its village's name of Kingsclere during its existence of nearly 160 years to become almost a brand of its own, synonymous with racing excellence. 

When John Porter, who designed the stables under the patronage of Sir Joseph Hawley, set up shop there in 1867, he had just 14 stables. The following year he had three runners in the Derby and one of which, Hawley's Blue Gown, won. The bar, then, was set pretty high from the outset. 

Balding, who succeeded his father Ian and grandfather Peter Hastings-Bass as the resident trainer, had a suitable riposte in his own first season of training when he sent out William Farish's Casual Look to win the Oaks of 2003. This maintained a long tradition of support from leading American owner-breeders at Kingsclere, including Paul Mellon and George Strawbridge, whose silks have hung in the famous colours room – once famously used as a makeshift surgery for Mellon's Mill Reef – alongside those of the King and Queen, Jeff Smith, Kirsten Rausing, Highclere Thoroughbred Racing, Qatar Racing, King Power, and joined more recently by the likes of Cheveley Park Stud and Juddmonte. 

If Porter could return to Kingsclere now, it is easy to imagine that he would be both pleased and impressed. His original designs live on, functional and useful, and his initials remain lavishly carved into the masonry. The significant expansion of his own time has continued through the Balding family's tenure, with a number of new roomy barns dotted across the hub of the training centre. The old brick stable yards remember the greats of yesteryear, such as Flying Fox, one of Porter's three Triple Crown winners, while the barns commemorate more recent star graduates such as Kameko and Elm Park. Poignantly, 'The Chairman's Barn' is named in honour of the late Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, the racehorse owner behind King Power and chairman of Leicester City FC.

“I'd love to bring my dad back, but sadly he's not in a good way at the moment,” says Balding of his 86-year-old father, who was diagnosed with Alzheimers several years ago.

“I think he would be immensely proud of how it's been developed because I think the key to it is doing it in the style of John Porter and the attention to detail in his design plans. What we try to do is update but still keep it so it aesthetically fits, as it were. It's a wonderful place to train because we've got so much space.”

 

Andrew Balding with his father Ian and Grey Shot in 2002 | Racingfotos

 

On work mornings, Balding can take advantage of some of the best turf in England up on the famed Watership Down, across the road from Park House Stables.

He continues, “The reason this yard was built here was to have access to the gallops on the downs and we've actually put in a mile all-weather up there as well. So we've constantly updated the training facilities to try to give us a chance to provide the best training service we can, essentially.”

When he took over from his father there were around 100 horses in the stable. That number has now more than doubled and the trainer admits that he has “been lucky”. In racing, however, luck tends to go hand in hand with graft. 

Balding, the leading British trainer last season, was denied the championship only by Aidan O'Brien. His tally of 163 winners in 2024 speaks to both the quality and quantity of bloodstock now housed at Kingsclere, which has been home to two of the last five 2,000 Guineas winners.

“You could be the best trainer in the world, but if you didn't have the kit – the owners who send you the horses, and the staff to do the job – you couldn't achieve anything,” he says. “We are very lucky in those two departments. And when I took over, we may have had 100 horses but it wasn't really viable. Kingsclere's a really big place and to make it viable, we had to look to increase the numbers and now we're in a good position where we've got in excess of 200 horses. If we want to develop, if we want to replace, none of these things are cheap. To redo the main gallop, you're looking at a £150,000 investment and we've got to be doing that every five or six years. So there's a huge outlay required to maintain a property like this.”

It's not just the equine facilities either. Around 80 members of staff live on the estate, either in cottages, flats or the hostel, which over time has been home to some of the biggest names in the jockey ranks, including William Buick, Oisin Murphy, David Probert, and Rob Hornby, who served their apprenticeships at Kingsclere. The first two names in that list have shared the British jockeys' championship between them in the last six years.

Facilities for the human inhabitants include a gym, tennis court and cricket pitch, with Andrew's wife Anna Lisa and mother Emma overseeing the needs of the staff in that village within a village. 

“Both my grandfather and my father were very forward-thinking in building properties for our staff to live in, and to be able to provide accommodation now with a job really gives you the upper hand in employing staff,” Balding acknowledges.

Succession is a theme in the equine ranks, too, and one of the stable's biggest hopes for the season is New Century (GB), winner of the G1 Summer Stakes at Woodbine last year and a son of Kameko.

“We always really hoped Kameko would make a stallion,” Balding says. “Obviously he was a high-class horse and probably he would've had a more appealing race record if it hadn't been for Covid, which really upset his campaign as a three-year-old. He's beautiful looking with a great temperament, so he had the basics to make a go of it and I think everyone involved couldn't be happier with the way his first season went. 

“And I think New Century's very good, so I really hope he'll go on and emulate his dad, which would give that continuity for everybody involved. Marie, who looked after Kameko, still works here; Maddie, who took him on his international travels; Kevin, the barn manager, is now looking after New Century in his barn and everybody is hoping that he can really give Kameko the start he needs.”

Whether or not we will see New Century in a Classic trial this spring remains “up in the air”. 

“We'll know more come the end of March as to whether we need a prep run,” says the trainer. “He was a horse who just thrived on racing last year, so it would be in my mind that possibly a prep would be suitable, but there's so little time between the Craven, which would be the preferred trial from my point of view. But he's a Group 1 winner already, so we know he's good enough to be running in the Guineas.”

He adds, “I think the difference from when Dad was training is that we are starting fast work earlier because we've got these all-weather surfaces that enable us to be probably six weeks ahead of where he would've been, because he would've been waiting for the grass to be usable in March. Sometimes that didn't happen until early April and so they needed to be looking for a trial to get them ready for those early-season big races, but I think it's less important now, really.”

Along with the best son of one of its recent Classic winners, the stable also contains a half-sister to another in Kassaya (GB) (Kingman {GB}), whose big brother Chaldean (GB) (Frankel {GB}) landed the Guineas two years ago.

“She looks very smart in her own right,” says Balding. “She won her second start and she started favourite for the Queen Mary and just nothing went right for her. She never got any sort of a run for the entire five furlongs and finished on the bridle. Then unfortunately she got an issue, which meant she had to have the rest of the year off. But she's done very well physically, so we'd be pretty hopeful of her having a good year.”

 

Kalpana and recent Godolphin TIEA winner Tyla Macfarlane | Emma Berry

 

Balding has kept hold of his two best fillies of last year, Juddmonte's Kalpana (GB) (Study Of Man {GB}), winner of the G1 Qipco British Champion Fillies and Mares Stakes, and Jeff Smith's See The Fire (GB), a daughter of Sea The Stars (Ire) and Arabian Queen (GB) who has been placed three times at Group 1 level as well as winning the G3 Strensall Stakes. Her three-year-old half-brother Royal Playwright (GB) (Lope De Vega {Ire}) also showed more than a little promise for the stable last year when finishing runner-up in the G2 Royal Lodge Stakes. 

Balding says, “Kalpana just got better and better with racing last year. This time last year, she'd just won a novice on her first start and she sort of crept up on us because she'd been a little weak and hadn't shown a huge amount through her two-year-old career, but she just found her feet. 

“Royal Playwright looks like he could be a really top three-year-old – it's all ahead of him. It's wonderful for Jeff to have a mare like Arabian Queen because not only was she a brilliant racemare but she's had Spirit Mixer, by Frankel, who's rated 100. He hasn't got any black type yet but he will do. Then we had a Kingman, Arabian Storm, who unfortunately just had a host of problems but he was listed-placed, and then we had See The Fire. I would be really hopeful that she could win at the top level at some stage.”

He adds, with refreshing candour, “I've probably made an absolute mess of campaigning See The Fire. We started in the Guineas and she ran no sort of a race, so we stayed at a mile because there just wasn't the evidence to say that we should be going further at that stage. By the end of the season we realised that the filly should probably stay a mile and a half and we essentially missed a lot of opportunities through last year. But that happens. We've got all of this year to put it right.

“Jeff does it for fun and for sport, and that sort of sentiment is sadly dying out, though not everyone can afford to do that. But he's breeding to race and to compete in the best races we can. And it just amazes me, the enthusiasm he still has. He is just the best man to train for.”

 

Coltrane, white face, returns from exercise at Kingsclere | Emma Berry

 

Balding is understandably fond of the Arabian Queen family but another horse who plainly has a special place in his heart is Coltrane (Ire) (Mastercraftsman {Ire}). The gallant stayer has won eight of his 29 races, including the G2 Doncaster Cup and G2 Lonsdale Cup, and taken his loyal owners Mick and Janice Mariscotti to many of the big meetings across Europe.

“He's just shy of a million pounds in earnings now, which is remarkable,” says Balding of the eight-year-old, who may next be seen attempting to win his third consecutive Sagaro Stakes.

“The Mariscottis have been such great supporters, and as a family we have just enjoyed racing him so much. My son Jonno, who's now 6'8″ and playing rugby for England under 18s, was riding him all through lockdown when he was only about eight or nine stone. And he kept saying, 'I think this horse is alright.' He looked slow and weak to me but as soon as we got him on the racecourse, he showed what he had and he just improved and improved. His CV reads well now and stayers are the most fabulous horses to have. If I could ever get a stayer like him again, who can compete in those races over a period of five years, I mean they're hard to find, but it would be a great joy if we could find another one.”

Balding is already out in front in this year's trainers' table and, though the turf season is still a month away, we can expect to see the team at Park House Stables ensure that Kingsclere remains a name which conjures up an image of the best British racing has to offer.

 

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