The sprawling Balding family training operation located on and around ancient Hampshire downland between the towns of Newbury and Basingstoke has changed vastly over recent times.
In the eighteen years since Andrew Balding took over the licence from his father Ian – and, within months, laid down what felt at the time like a notable marker of intent by winning the Oaks at Epsom with Casual Look – numbers housed at Park House stables in Kingsclere have burgeoned.
As well as new horses with fancier pedigrees, some of flat racing’s highest national and international rollers have joined the list of patrons, amongst them Qatar Racing and the late Leicester City owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, and his King Power string.
However, Jeff Smith, owner of Alcohol Free, the conqueror under Oisin Murphy of 2000 Guineas winner Poetic Flare and arch-rival Snow Lantern, in a 1-2-3 for the Classic generation in the Qatar Sussex Stakes, proves the longstanding saying that the more things appear to change, the more they stay the same.
Since the late 1980s, and the retirement of his then principal trainer Ron Sheather, the 75-year-old aviation businessman has been – along, to be fair, with others, including the Queen – the most solid of Kingsclere regulars.
Starting with “six or seven” horses, Smith has a quarter of the forty or so runners he has in training in 2021 under Balding’s care; they have been mainly homebred at his Littleton Stud, close to nearby Winchester, but some like today’s winner, the first three-year-old filly to win the historic Group One prize since Marling in 1992, were purchased, in her case as a foal for 40,000 Euro.
Over the years, Smith and the Baldings have combined for impressively consistent success, with a long list of star names, like Dashing Blade, Lochsong, Lochangel and now Alcohol Free, all carrying Smith’s purple and light blue silks to Group One victory.
Alcohol Free, now a three-time top-level winner – after the Cheveley Park Stakes and Coronation Stakes – and perhaps luckless in the Falmouth Stakes, looks as good as any.
Celebrating a second Sussex win thirty seven years after the first with the Sheather-trained Chief Singer, Smith, who's also enjoyed high profile Goodwood victories with the stayer Persian Punch as well as the electric Lochsong, said: "The fact that I have done it again is unbelievable isn’t it because, okay I have quite a few horses, but I’m scarcely a Coolmore or a Godolphin, so to win it twice... yes, I’m very fortunate.
“David Bowe who runs the stud for me bought her – I didn’t see her – in Ireland and he takes 100% of the credit. I told him that he paid too much at the time, but not now.
"That was very good: we know she has so much speed, but the way she’s finished there, bloody hell – she’s going away, isn’t she, from a Guineas winner and there’s a Breeders' Cup Mile winner [Order Of Australia] beaten in fifth.
“The Juddmonte International at York has got to be tempting."
The success, Andrew Balding’s second in the Sussex Stakes after Here Comes When sprung a 20/1 surprise in a deluge in 2017, was the latest in what’s building up into another fine season for the stable, a trend which continued an hour later when the Rob Hornby-ridden charity horse Achelois – raising money for London’s Royal Marsden cancer hospital – took the Premier Fillies' Handicap.
Balding said: "Maybe we got lucky with Here Comes When, although that was hugely rewarding, don’t get me wrong.
"It’s lovely to see this filly cement her place at the top of the tree – Poetic Flare is obviously a very good horse but she did really well in the end.
"I’m sure there were some hard luck stories but I’m sure she was the best horse on the day. It’s no easy task taking on the colts and older horses and to do it in that style was just fantastic."
After jumping off the runner-up Poetic Flare, the 2000 Guineas and St James’s Palace Stakes winner who was conceding the three-pound weight allowance to the winner, jockey Kevin Manning blamed the rain-softened going for the defeat.
Back to Balding, and with Alcohol Free, recent York winner Bangkok, talented two-year-olds Berkshire Shadow and Sandrine, and more, there is talk of a first challenge for the trainers’ title, won by his Dad in 1971, the year of Mill Reef’s Derby triumph.
A possibility, but Charlie Appleby is favourite – however, what’s practically a certainty is that with more and more days like this it will happen soon.
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