Balding at the double

Kingsclere’s Andrew Balding has paid tribute to one of racing’s biggest fans and greatest supporters, Queen Elizabeth II.

The Baldings had a long and successful association with the Queen, most recently combining to land the Group 2 Temple Stakes with King’s Lynn at Haydock in May.

During Her Majesty’s 70-year reign, her thoroughbreds were successful on 24 occasions at Royal Ascot, while she landed an impressive five Classic triumphs.

One of those Classic winners, Pall Mall, won the inaugural running of Newbury’s feature Flat race, the Lockinge Stakes, in 1958 – a feat he repeated in 1959 – before he landed the 2,000 Guineas at Newmarket.

The Queen’s final Royal Ascot winner came in 2020, some 67 years after her first win at British racing’s most famous fixture, when the Balding-trained Tactical won the Windsor Castle Stakes.

“It’s a very sad occasion for the whole country, everyone at Kingsclere feels a huge void, a huge loss,” Balding said.

“She’s owned horses at Kingsclere since the 50s, starting out with my grandfather.

“She’s been an omnipresent figure my entire life, both from a racing and personal perspective.

“She was a wonderful owner and a wonderful person.

“It was a huge privilege to have had the honour of training for her.”

UK racing was cancelled on Friday and Saturday but returned on Sunday when Balding landed an emotional double at Doncaster.

Chaldean made it three successive wins as the two-year-old stormed home in the Group 2 Coral Champagne Stakes under Frankie Dettori, finishing three-and-a-half lengths clear of his nearest challenger, Indestructible.

“It was a challenging week,” Balding admitted.

“Chaldean was impressive, he won with authority and class.

“Frankie Dettori’s ridden a lot of fantastic horses and he was very impressed with him, that was very encouraging.

“He’s won a Group 3 and a Group 2 as a two-year-old this year, there aren’t many horses that can do that.

“The obvious next step is a Group 1, and he looks like he could be a live candidate for the Dewhurst Stakes at Newmarket next month.”

Three years older, but no less impressive, was Coltrane, who won the Group 2 Coral Doncaster Cup.

The five-year-old, who won at Royal Ascot earlier this year, finished a neck clear of the odds-on favourite, two time Group 1 winner Trueshan.

Balding said: “He’s almost the opposite to Chaldean, he was a slow burner as a two-year-old, he took a lot of time to get to where he is.

“He’s just stepped up every time we’ve asked him to, it was a huge achievement for the whole team.”