Andrew Balding

The headline numbers are impressive, but the quality backing them up is what really sets Balding apart. He has trained 70 top-level races — the kind contested by the best horses in the country, at places like York, Ascot and Newmarket. Two of those came within a week of each other last October, with wins at Newmarket on the 11th and Ascot on the 18th. Landing one of the biggest prizes in the sport is an event. Landing two inside seven days is a statement.

One of the more telling details in Balding's record is what happens at Brighton, a tight, undulating track on the Sussex coast that sorts out the sharp from the slow. He has sent out 4 winners from just 7 runners there — more than half his horses winning at a track where plenty of trainers never really crack the code. That kind of course record suggests his horses arrive ready rather than just fit.

His most productive alliance is with jockey Oisin Murphy, a partnership that has produced 73 wins from 311 rides together — winning roughly 1 in every 4 races when paired up. That is an exceptional return and the kind of combination that opposing trainers and punters take seriously. On a smaller scale, his partnership with Hard To Believe stands out too: two wins from three races together, a record that hints at a horse placed in exactly the right spots by someone who knows what they are doing.

Balding's most recent winner came at Wolverhampton on 7 March 2026, a useful all-weather track that keeps yards ticking over through the winter months. It is the kind of bread-and-butter win that rarely makes the headlines, but for a trainer running at this volume and this standard, it is simply another day at the office.