Balding concedes it will be ‘tough’ to win first trainers’ title

Andrew Balding admitted it will be “tough” to win his first championship after chief rival Aidan O'Brien landed the £275,000 William Hill Futurity Trophy with Giant Sequoia beating the Kingsclere-trained Gran Dia .

Having conceded an advantage of around £80,000 after Champions Day at Ascot, Balding needed to win the first prize of over £120,000 at Doncaster, or at least hope O'Brien's three runners did not figure too prominently in the final Group One of the British season.

While his once-raced Gran Dia ran a fine race for one so inexperienced, picking up £50,298, O'Brien saddled the first and third – and to compound matters the Ballydoyle handler won the £50,000 first prize for the Listed Prospect Stakes 35 minutes later.

Balding did have a winner when Scienza got up on the line to win the nursery by a nose, but that first prize was only £6,401.

Reflecting on Gran Dia's run, Balding said: “That was a hell of a run, I'm delighted with him. He just lacks a bit of experience, but he'll be a nice horse for next year.

“He travelled beautifully through the race, he really did run a smashing race and hopefully he should develop over the winter.

“Oisin (Murphy) thinks he can handle better ground. He coped with it today, but soft ground is not imperative.”

As for what the result meant in terms of the title, he added: “It makes life tough, doesn't it. We've got a few more to go with, but I think it is probably beyond us now.

“There's a few that we'd always planned to run at the back end, but they'd all have to win I'd say.”

O'Brien, though, as is his wont, was not counting any chickens.

“It's not over yet, there's a long time yet, there's two months to go,” he said.

But while O'Brien might not think he has won, some bookmakers certainly do, with Coral closing the betting.

“Aidan O'Brien had been 2-5 favourite to retain the championship going into the season's final Group One, with Andrew Balding 7-4 to win it for the first time,” said Coral's David Stevens.

“But victory for Giant Sequoia in the Futurity extended O'Brien's lead despite Gran Dia taking second place for his rival, and with Bengal Tiger 's Listed success stretching the Ballydoyle lead to over £200,000, we felt this was the day the race could be called over.”