Andrew Balding: my team for the Sky Bet Ebor Festival

Andrew Balding is busy preparing a power-packed team to bring to York Racecourse for next week’s Sky Bet Ebor Festival.

The Kingsclere trainer will be represented in a string of Group races and handicaps across the four-day fixture.

Balding said: “It’s a very big meeting. We always look forward to it. We’re strong, particularly in a couple of the bigger races, which is always nice and we’ll have plenty of runners in the handicaps as well.”

As it stands, Balding looks likely to have runners in three of the meeting’s four Group 1s.

On Wednesday, August 19, Item is ready to line up against Ombudsman and Constitution River in the richest ever staging of the Juddmonte International, now worth £1.5 million

The Frankel colt is proven at York having twice won Group Twos over course and distance; first, in the Al Basti Equiworld Dubai Dante Stakes and then last month in the Sky Bet York Stakes. 

Balding said: “He’s a horse we’ve always had huge belief in. Bar Epsom, Derby Day, on which the ground was not to his liking, he’s got a flawless record. He’s won his other four starts and was quite impressive last time at York, given that the race probably wasn’t run ideally to suit him.

“But we’re there with the best older horse in Europe and probably the best three-year-old in Europe. It’s no easy task. But it would be great to go there and see how he can pitch in against those two.” 

King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes heroine, Kalpana, is being trained for the Legends Global Yorkshire Oaks on Thursday, August 20.

And all the signs are positive off the back of the superstar mare’s stunning success at Ascot on July 25.

Balding said: “I’m very pleased with how she’s moving and how her appetite’s been since Ascot, etc. 

“She’s got a big piece of work to do prior to confirming that we’re going to York. But as long as that goes well, we’re really looking forward to it.”

Two-time course winner (William Hill Summer Stakes) Flora Of Bermuda is on track for the Sky Bet City of York Stakes on Saturday– a race Balding has won on five previous occasions, including last year with Never So Brave. The defending champion is entered for this year’s renewal, as is 2025 Group Two scorer, Marvelman.

Balding said: “I think the one that would certainly go would be Flora Of Bermuda, who seems to be effective on any ground. She won the Oak Tree (Glorious Goodwood) well, showing that she stays seven furlongs. She’s won twice at York before over six – it looks the perfect spot for her, really. She’s not won a Group One yet, but she’s been placed in a couple.

“Marvelman, I think he’s a very smart horse but he’s better with give in the ground. His participation would depend on the going.

“Never So Brave, he’s been left in the Hungerford (Newbury, August 15) – we’ll have that as an option as well. I feel he’s just coming back to where he was this time last year. I thought he ran well in the Sussex Stakes.”

Other York ‘possibles’ from Balding’s older horses include Galiyan (Group Two Sky Bet Great Voltigeur) and Prizeland (Listed British EBF and Sir Henry Cecil Galtres Stakes).

And from his juvenile string he plans to send Moonrise for Thursday, August 20’s Sky Bet Lowther Stakes. She triumphed in a six-furlong Group Three at Ascot last month and is now being primed for a move into Group Two company.

Balding said: “We felt York would suit her really well because she’s a strong traveller and that’s a good speed, the York six (furlongs). I’m looking forward to seeing her up in grade.”    

The Sky Bet Ebor on the final afternoon could see more than one Balding-trained runner with Tarriance, Further and Fantasy World all entered for the Britain’s richest flat handicap.

Tarriance, last year’s Sky Bet Melrose winner over the same trip, looks to be his leading contender for the £500,000 race and ran solidly to finish fourth in a very competitive stayers’ handicap at the Qatar Goodwood Festival.

Balding commented: “I thought he ran an excellent race last time. He’d been off the track for a bit because we were saving him for the Ebor. That was very much an intended break. We got him up early to go to Saudi in the winter and he then ran well in the Yorkshire Cup, I thought. 

“We decided after that – having won the Melrose last year – that this was his primary target and couldn’t have been happier with his prep run or how he’s come out of it.”

The four-day Sky Bet Ebor Festival runs from Wednesday, August 19 to Saturday, August 22.