Bloody hell, some of horse racing’s top brass drive you mad. At all four fixtures that I attended over the Christmas/New Year holiday – Chepstow, Newbury, Warwick and Windsor – there were springs in steps and smiles on faces to rival the terrific atmospheres and generally favourable weather as news circulated of bumper, even sell-out, crowds at meetings as far afield as Sedgefield and Musselburgh and Ascot and Kempton. In a sport not renowned for enjoying day-to-day good headlines this was something to celebrate surely. Yet I bumped into a well-paid senior official whose low level of seasonal cheer would have given that of Scrouge a run for its money as he opined that the attendances were “quite good”. Quite? Quite? FFS. “I thought they were marvellous”, I replied. When I added the hope that the sport would be shouting about its festive success this well-paid senior official looked frankly completely blank. That’s the problem: racing employs too many unengaged and unambitious people who seem to spend am inordinate mount of time blaming various infighting factions within the sport for apparently doing so little (but still draw a grand wage). In contrast, on ITV, Richard Hoiles has done a magnificent job, going beyond his commentary brief, to champion the growing chorus that cries that as December 27 to 31 are more part of the holiday than ever these days, with millions of people off work, there should be a greater amount of racing on offer than is currently the case. Totally correct…though my Scrouge-like official would probably whine on about the weather not being guaranteed.
When Success Really Does Run In The Family
In the many tributes to Ian Balding there has been much talk about how he and his wife Emma have created something of a sporting dynasty, with son Andrew now the most prolific flat trainer in Britain, daughter Clare probably the country’s leading sports broadcaster and, in the next generation, grandson Jonno demonstrating the Balding rugby union genes are strong too, playing for Gloucester and England U18s. But in fact it is truer to say they have continued a family tradition. Ian, who played rugby with distinction for Bath even after he’d taken up training, his brother Toby (who himself saddled two winners of both the Grand National and Champion Hurdle, plus one of a Cheltenham Gold Cup) and their sister had an American mother and were born in the US where their father – before turning to racing – was one of the most successful polo players of the time. An uncle was also a multiple Grade One-winning trainer. And on renowned owner/breeder/buyer Emma’s side, her father Peter Hastings-Bass, from whom Ian took over at Kingsclere in 1964, was son of Aubrey Hastings, winner of the Grand National as both a jockey and trainer. Peter’s widow Priscilla, a very considerable horsewoman herself in an era when women were not permitted (until 1966) to hold trainers’ licences, was a descendant of the Lord Derby who famously instigated the Epsom Classics. Quite a family.
And something for the weekend…I do hope that the weather relents enough for the likeable and progressive French Ship to get the chance to sail on up the ratings in the Coral Lanzarote Hurdle at Kempton on Saturday. The six-year-old, trained by the burgeoning partnership of Philip Hobbs and Johnson White, is probably unfortunate that his form figures in 2025 of 1-F11 are not unblemished, having stumbled and fallen with jockey Micheal Nolan after the third-last in Chepstow’s Silver Trophy in October. Ten more pounds for a success at Newbury the following month is clearly quite something, but he did absolutely BOLT up that day. Even more unfortunate is Nolan who’s facing a long road back to the saddle having been badly injured in a fall in mid-October.
