| TRAINING |
Oscar Yeadon
The Balding family
IAN BALDING A lthough it’s now been more than 15 years since Ian Balding handed over his training licence to his son Andrew, he remains an active team member at Park House Stables. The former champion trainer wiilll turn 80 later this year but continues to ride an ex-racehorse on a daily basis, still pursuing a passion which could have led him down a diffe ferent career path but for some timely advic ice. “I loved riding jumpers and wanted to concentrate on that, but I very nearly didn’t take up the chance to train until Prince Philip talked me out of it. I was stayin ing wi with my then future mother-in-law, wit Priscilla Hastings-Bass. At dinner, Prince Philip said to me, ‘It’s important that young people take their golden opportunities, as this is what made our country great!’” Balding became a trainer through the death of the then-trainer at Park House Stables, Peter Hastings-Bass. Park House Stables was patronised by some of the sport’s most infl fluential owners, and flu Balding found himself in charge of one of the country’s most powerful strings. “It was 1964 and I was 25 and had been assistant trainer for only three months. At that time, the Jockey Club wouldn’t allow ladies to hold a trainer’s licence, so followin ing Peter’s tragic death at only 43, Priscilla couldn’t take over. The Jockey Club wouldn’t let me train professionally and ride as an amateur, but they made an allowance to accommodate so I could still ride horses that I owned myself. “I think it was because I was so young that I don’t remember being daunted by
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the owners. I met the Queen very early on and she was lovely, very understanding and very knowledgeable. “In becoming trainer in the circumstances I did, I was rather overwhelmed and nervous. Happily, we had a wonderful head lad in Bill Palmer, and Priscilla helped me tremendously. Thank God we had some decent owners
and horses in the yard at that time.” Just weeks into his training career, Ian Balding trained two Royal Ascot win inners on the same day, which included Silly Season’s vi victory in the Coventry Stakes, vic cementing the young trainer’s relationship wit ith the two-year-old colt’s owner, the American anglophile and philanthropist, Paul Mellon.