Dubai Duty Free Mill Reef Stakes To Honour Legendary Trainer Ian Balding

Newbury Racecourse is proud to announce that this year’s renewal of the prestigious Group 2 Dubai Duty Free Mill Reef Stakes will be run in honour of the late Ian Balding, who trained the mighty Mill Reef throughout the colt’s glittering career.

The race will be officially titled: The Dubai Duty Free Mill Reef Stakes (In honour of Ian Balding)

The feature race – taking place on Saturday 19 September – headlines the Dubai Duty Free International Weekend, which also includes the Listed Dubai Duty Free Cup and the Group 3 Dubai International Airport World Trophy Stakes. The two-day fixture promises another top-class weekend of racing at the Berkshire track.

Ian Balding, who died in January at the age of 87, was one of the most respected trainers of his generation. From his historic Kingsclere base, he was crowned champion trainer in 1971 – the year Mill Reef swept to victory in the Epsom Derby, the Eclipse Stakes, the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes and the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe. It was a campaign that catapulted both horse and trainer to lasting fame and remains one of the finest in the sport’s history.

Fittingly, Mill Reef’s own brilliance first came to light as a two-year-old, when he landed the Coventry Stakes, the Gimcrack Stakes and the Dewhurst Stakes – the very type of high-class juvenile sprinter the Mill Reef Stakes was created to celebrate. Inaugurated in 1972, just a year on from that historic season and shortly after the colt’s retirement to stud, the race has honoured his name ever since.

Balding’s influence on the sport extended far beyond Mill Reef. Training for owners including Paul Mellon and the royal family, he saddled the likes of dual Prix de l’Abbaye heroine Lochsong, top miler Selkirk and Glint of Gold, before handing over the Kingsclere licence to his son, Andrew Balding just after the turn of the century. Andrew has since become a Classic-winning trainer in his own right, while daughter Clare Balding has enjoyed a distinguished career in sports broadcasting.

The tribute makes for an especially poignant occasion, with two fillies trained by Andrew Balding among the current acceptors for the race.

Open to two-year-olds only, the six-furlong contest is worth an increased total prize fund of £175,000 and continues to serve as one of the key end-of-season targets for the leading juvenile sprinters.

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