Ian Balding was a terrific, Derby winning trainer but in his mind he was first and always a jockey. He had been a jockey, cared about jockeys, made champion jockeys. He was a perfect fit as an IJF Trustee.
He was a tremendous all-round sportsman and played rugby at England trial level. But his father Gerald was a trainer, and when Ian’s brother Toby took over after Gerald’s early death, Ian became a full-time riding assistant piloting many winners for the stable and his outside successes included the National Hunt Chase on Time in 1963.
Another early death, that of royal trainer Peter Hastings Bass, put at least temporary halt to riding dreams. For Ian had just joined the Kingsclere stable as assistant and now at 25 was handling classic horses for the like of Paul Mellon and Her Majesty herself and it was not thought sensible for their new trainer to be risking his neck at Cheltenham and Aintree.
But you couldn’t take the jockey out of the man. Ian was still jumping impossible obstacles every Sunday with the Berkshire Drag and later managed to sneakily start point to pointing again. We all knew what was going on yet it’s still scarcely believable that at 46 he rode his horse Ross Poldark to win the Foxhunters over the Grand National fences at Liverpool. The proof still hangs on the wall at Kingsclere.
Ian Balding was a busy man but not too busy to refuse an invitation to be a trustee. I remember watching him at an Oaksey House meeting and marvelling at our good fortune to have so distinguished a figure taking so much trouble on behalf of our others. Then I also remembered the ethos at Kingsclere. How kids were not just taught about riding skills but behaviour too. This was someone who cared.
Ian Balding may have been a great trainer but he never lost what it meant to be one of those who pull the goggles down and face what the gallop brings them. That’s why the Injured Jockeys Fund will always hold him so high in the memory.
Brough Scott MBE writing for the Injured Jockeys Fund |