Ian Balding

Ian Anthony Balding (7 November 1938 – 2 January 2026) was a British racehorse trainer. He was the son of the polo player and racehorse trainer Gerald Matthews Balding and the younger brother of trainer Toby Balding. Ian Balding was born in the US, but his family returned to the UK in 1945. He was educated at Marlborough College and Millfield school in Somerset. He went up to Christ's College, Cambridge, in 1959 to read Rural Estate Management, where he played Rugby for the university team, gaining his Blue in 1961 at full back. He started training in 1964. Kingsclere became his home at the age of 26 and it is here that he earned his reputation as an internationally respected trainer. Balding principally trained horses for flat races, but did however bring Crystal Spirit to victory in 1991 at the Sun Alliance Novices' Hurdle. Ian Balding had influence on many top-class Thoroughbreds and race horses, amongst whom some are Mill Reef, Lochsong, Mrs Penny, Glint of Gold, Diamond Shoal, Gold and Ivory, Selkirk, Forest Flower, Dashing Blade, Robellino, Silver Fling, King of Clubs, Lochangel, Top Cees, Crystal Spirit, and Tagula. Ian Balding retired in 2002 and gave his Park House stables licence at Kingsclere, Hampshire, to his son Andrew.