TDN Conversations is a new monthly podcast series and we are delighted to have been joined this month by Emma Balding, who discusses the history of her breeding operation with Emma Berry.
“The whole place had been requisitioned by the Americans during the war, and the stud had been used for a dairy herd,” she says of Kingsclere Stud, which neighbours the historic Park House Stables, where her son Andrew now trains. “So there are remnants still of the fact that it was used for that. The house was taken over and the officers lived in the house.”
Balding was a young child when she moved with her parents and brothers to Kingsclere in 1953 and, just as training racehorses has run through generations of her family, so has the breeding of them. This she has continued with skill, achieving notable success, often through utilising some fairly under-the-radar stallions. Plainly, she does not mind flying in the face of fashion.
Listen to the podcast here.
“I don't mind breeding something that goes jumping. I really don't,” she says. “There's a very good market for the sort of horses we're breeding, if they're good enough. And Paul Mellon wasn't afraid of the jumping side of things. In fact, that's how he started in England, by having jumpers.
“You do not want your families undermined by moderate jumpers, but I'm never afraid of a good jumper in the family, even when we're buying yearlings.'
Both through her involvement with Andrew in selecting young horses such as star stayer Coltrane (Ire) (Mastercraftsman {Ire}) – a 50,000gns Book 1 yearling with earnings just shy of £1 million – or her breeding of Group 1 winners Elm Park (GB) (Phoenix Reach {Ire}) and Side Glance (GB) (Passing Glance {GB}), Balding has become renowned for her good eye and sound judgement.
We are grateful for the support of our podcast sponsor, Saracen Horse Feeds, and we hope you will enjoy listening. Click here to listen to the podcast.
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