Andrew Balding’s season reached a height at the big York meeting, where he was in dominant form (Sporting Life Racing)
Andrew Balding is locked in a battle with Aidan O’Brien at the top of the UK Flat Trainers Championship, a title his father Ian won in 1971, thanks largely to the icon he trained that year, Mill Reef.
O’Brien, vying for a third successive title and a ninth overall, is in the lead with earnings of £7,916,870 gleaned from 22 wins and 69 places from 120 runs, while Balding is on earnings of £7,761,964 gleaned from 165 wins and 437 places from 837 runss.
Arc entries Item and Kalpana have Champions Day Gr 1 entries for Balding and his other Gr 1 winner this season, Blue Bolt, holds a Gr 1 entry on October 3 at Newmarket and on Champions Day.
Of course O’Brien always has a plethora of Gr 1 entries and has to date had 18 Gr 1 wins this season, a lot of them in the UK.
He is possibly on track to break his own record of 28 Gr 1 wins in a season, which he set in 2017, thus breaking Bobby Frankel’s record.
Meanwhile, Dylan Cunha is in 61st position on the table with earnings of £418,845 gleaned from 32 wins and 140 places from 325 runs.
The former Summerveld-based South African started out at Newmarket in the UK with just one horse four years ago, so has had a meteoric rise.
Joey Ramsden is in 129th place with earnings of £131,474 from 9 wins and 75 places from 153 runs.
Craig Benton is in 256th place with 5 wins and 13 places from just 39 runs and earnings of £30,655.
