Andrew Balding Stable Tour: 2026 Flat Season Preview

Andrew Balding has consistently proved that he is among the best in the business since taking out a licence in 2003 with numerous Classic wins and Group One victories adoring a glittering CV.

Last year saw the Park House Stables handler secure a new personal best domestic prizemoney total of £7,246,798, however even that impressive figure was not enough to secure the Classic-winning handler a first Flat trainers’ championship.

However, his pursuit of a breakthrough title is already gathering pace with Balding sitting comfortably at the head of the trainers championship table ahead of the new season ramping up a gear. Although rocked the loss of leading Betfred 2000 Guineas contender Gewan, who suffered a fatal accident at Kempton Park, Balding still has an incredibly exciting team to represent him on track over the coming months.

With that comes a level of optimism that Balding could finally get his hands on a trophy he has chased for so long.

Balding said: “We were thrilled with last year. We had a record amount of prizemoney for us and a record number of winners so you have got to be happy with that. The most important thing was three domestic Group One winners as that is what we try to achieve every year is winners at the top level, and preferably in England.

“Winning the trainers’ championship is what every trainer wants to achieve, and it doesn’t get any easier. The Derby, King George and Juddmonte International pretty much determine who wins the trainers’ championship so you have to be competitive in them.

“At this stage I haven’t got an obvious Derby horse so that will make things a little bit tougher, but we have some smart older horses to go to war with. The exciting thing is that so many of those horses have stayed in training, which is a help going forward as sometimes you can get that gaping vacuum after a good year, but that doesn’t seem to be the case this year."