Andrew Balding (centre) sends some of his best horses to Ascot

Andrew Balding on Champions Day contenders including Kalpana and Never So Brave

By Matt Brocklebank

Horse Racing

Sat October 18, 2025 · 2M ago

Andrew Balding may be within striking distance of Aidan O'Brien in the British Trainers' Championship but insists he won't give the chance of a first title too much thought before the very end of the year.

Balding has declared seven horses across six races on the highly-lucrative Champions Day card this weekend, including star filly Kalpana, who is reported to have taken her Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe exertions well.

The Kingsclere yard run two in the QIPCO Champion Stakes, another progressive pair in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes, plus one in the British Champions Sprint Stakes as well as a promising juvenile in the new Champions Day Two-Year-Old Conditions Stakes.

Balding trails the master of Ballydoyle, O'Brien, by £614,990 in the current standings, with John and Thady Gosden snapping at his heels in third, and it's fair to say expectations are no more than realistic in terms of the task of climbing to the top by the end of the battle which could technically run through to December 31.

Speaking on a press call organised by Ascot and QIPCO British Champions Day on Thursday, Balding said: "We want winners at the big meetings and if that suddenly means you’re coming into days like Saturday and you’ve got half a chance, then we might think about it – but maybe not until after Saturday!

"It’s not something at the beginning of the year we say we’ll be champion trainer. I think we’ve been second twice and third once though – so at least we’re in the mix, that’s all we set out to do, to be competitive at the top level as much as we can be.

“It took us a good 10 years training before we started getting some new really big owners and it has really helped our cause just getting better-quality horses to train. That's the most significant thing, if Juddmonte are sending you seven or eight yearlings each year and getting others from more big owner/breeders then it gives you a chance.

"There are a lot of capable trainers out there who if they’re getting sent the horses I’m able to train they would be capable of getting the same results, but you cannot do it without the horses.

“Our senior management team is probably second to none and we’ve got lots of really capable young riders and grooms, and it’s a happy team. I’m very grateful for that."

Kalpana is nominated as the team's best chance of a winner on the star-studded afternoon as she makes a 13-day turnaround from finish seventh in the Arc de Triomphe to try and defend her crown in the QIPCO British Champions Fillies & Mares Stakes.

“I think she ran better than it looked in Longchamp," Balding said. "The draw didn’t help but she was sort of a little wider than we wanted to be and she’s had to cover more ground than anything else.

“She ran pretty well in the circumstances and her second in the King George was an outstanding effort. So it is less than two weeks since the Arc and she had a hard race there so that’s the big question mark, but she seems well at home. It would be easier if they could talk, obviously, but reading the signs that we can do – like her appetite and her appearance after exercise – she seems to have recovered well from France.

“I think the second in the Pretty Polly was a really great effort, and so was the second in the King George. They are really top-class performances and it’s just slightly frustrating that she couldn’t get her head in front. She lost little in defeat in either race to be honest.

“Coming here was always a possibility. We had to keep her confirmed (for Ascot) even though we knew we were running in the Arc de Triomphe. It was always in the back of our minds that we saved her for an autumn campaign, because she’s still had a relatively light season for a horse of her age. Another week would have been perfect but we play the hand we’re dealt."

Oisin Murphy wins on Almeric

Almeric and Fox Legacy line up in the QIPCO Champion Stakes under Oisin Murphy and PJ McDonald respectively and Balding is aware of the task facing his runners who are both up in grade.

Regarding Almeric, who missed the bulk of the summer campaign after a setback, he said: “It was frustrating as he won the Feilden Stakes, the horse he beat (King Of Cities) has won the Strensall since then, they did a very good timefigure (Timeform) and Almeric was entitled to come on for that first run.

“Then he got an injury and missed the French Derby which was a shame. But he came back and I thought he looked good at Ayr. It was a Listed race but he was carrying a penalty.

“This is in at the deep end but he’s likely to remain in training next year and he will be capable of mixing it at the top level in time. Whether he’s ready for it on Saturday, we’ll find out.

“It’s a little bit (a leap into the unknown) with Fox Legacy too, but I think he’s a horse who has really found his feet. He’d had a couple of races close together and we just felt we’d keep him fresh for this race, with the thought that it might just cut up a bit but I don’t think it has at all!

“It’s as deep a Champion Stakes as we’ve had for a few years so the plan has probably back-fired a bit and he’s more like 25/1 rather than being a 10/1 shot, but he’s a capable horse and I’m sure he’ll give it his best.”

The bold and the Brave

Never So Brave brings course form and a progressive profile into the QEII and he's joined in the line-up by the supplemented Marvelman, who punched his ticket for a crack at the big time when running away with last month's Group 2 Betfred Park Stakes at Doncaster.

“He’s done nothing wrong this year really," the trainer said of the ex-Sir Michael Stoute-trained Never So Brave. "He was very impressive carrying pretty much top weight in the Buckingham Palace at the Royal meeting over this course – obviously it’s another furlong on Saturday which I don’t think will bother him. He won on the Round Course over a mile there in the Summer Mile, and he won a Group 1 last time over seven.

“So he is a high-class horse and deserves his chance in this race.

“Never So Brave had Rosallion behind him last time out at York and it’ll be very interesting to see how the three-year-olds can fare. I think that to be fair to Field Of Gold and Rosallion as well, the Sussex Stakes was an unsatisfactory race to establish how the three-year-old compare with the older horses at the mole.

“This is a deep race and this is what Champions Day should be about – a really open race stacked full of quality horses.”

Never So Brave (centre) wins the Sky Bet City Of York

Regarding Marvelman, he added: "We were very impressed with his performance at Doncaster, he’s always threatened to be a high-class horse and he’s already developing into that. He looked very good at Doncaster and we’re looking forward to him but he’s obviously stepping up a furlong.

“It’s a little bit of an unknown but we were keen to try and establish, before we start his four-year-old campaign, to see whether a mile could be within his range for next year.”

Sir Albert flies the Balding flag in the inaugural running of the QIPCO British Champions Day Two-Year-Old Conditions Stakes, while Flora Of Bermuda seeks a top-class breakthrough in the Champions Sprint.

“I see Flora Of Bermuda has been drawn one," Balding said of the Wathnan Racing-owned filly. "So I just hope there’s a draw bias to the far side and that will help her. But it doesn’t give us many options from that point of view.

“She’s been placed in three or four Group 1s now, has looked unlucky in a couple, and she deserves to have her day in the sunshine and I’d love to think she could get that on Saturday."

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