Ivor G. Balding

Ivor G. Balding
Ivor G. Balding
Occupation	Trainer
Born	23 May 1908; Leicestershire, England
Died	20 January 2005 (aged 96); Camden, South Carolina, U.S.
Major racing wins
	New York Handicap (1962); Massachusetts Handicap (1966, 1971) ; Matron Stakes (1966) ; Edgemere Handicap (1966) ; Spinaway Stakes (1966) ; Garden State Stakes (1967) ; Travers Stakes (1968); Juvenile Stakes (1969) ; Bed O' Roses Handicap (1970) ; Demoiselle Stakes (1970) ; Dixie Stakes (1971)
Racing awards
	Champion trainer at Saratoga Race Course (1966)
Significant horses
	Chompion

Ivor Godfrey Balding (23 May 1908 – 20 January 2005) was a British champion polo player, thoroughbred farm manager and racehorse trainer.^[1]

Biography

Breeding farm manager

Ivor Balding had two brothers who also played polo, Gerald Barnard Balding, Sr. and Barney Balding. He moved to the United States in 1930 where he attended Cornell University. In 1936, he went to work for the Thoroughbred breeding farm of Sonny Whitney in Old Westbury, New York. Three years later Whitney appointed him manager of his key breeding operation in Lexington, Kentucky.^[2]

During his tenure in Lexington, Balding encouraged Whitney to import Mahmoud from England where he had won the 1936 Epsom Derby. Brought to the United States in 1940, Mahmoud would prove to be an outstanding sire of seventy stakes winners and was the Leading sire in North America in 1946 and the Leading broodmare sire in North America for 1957. Of most importance to bloodlines worldwide, Mahmoud was the broodmare sire of Natalma, dam of the legendary Northern Dancer who became the most successful sire of the 20th Century^[3] and whom the National Thoroughbred Racing Association calls "one of the most influential sires in Thoroughbred history".^[4]

Training career

From 1961 to 1992, Ivor Balding was the head trainer for Whitney's racing stable during which time he earned the leading trainer title in 1966 at Saratoga Race Course.^[5] He died at age 96 in Camden, South Carolina.

References

^ "Ivor Balding, 96, a Standout During Polo's Golden Era, Dies". New York Times. 26 January 2005. Retrieved 5 April 2011. Ivor G. Balding, one of three British brothers who gained international fame as polo stars in the 1930s, when the sport attracted large crowds and wide press coverage, died on Thursday at his home in Camden, S.C. He was 96. ... Mr. Balding, along with his brothers Barney and Gerald, played polo in the United States throughout the 1920s and 1930s, mostly at the famed Meadow Brook Club in Westbury on Long Island, then the national center of the sport.
^ Thoroughbred Times - 23 January 2005
^ "Delaware Park adds five to Wall of Fame", Daily Racing Form, 12 July 2012, accessed 11 May 2013.
^ "Windfields Farm" Archived 2014-05-03 at the Wayback Machine, NTRA biography database, accessed 16 June 2013.
^ Thoroughbred Times - 23 January 2005

[1] "Ivor Balding, 96, a Standout During Polo's Golden Era, Dies". New York Times. 26 January 2005. Retrieved 5 April 2011. Ivor G. Balding, one of three British brothers who gained international fame as polo stars in the 1930s, when the sport attracted large crowds and wide press coverage, died on Thursday at his home in Camden, S.C. He was 96. ... Mr. Balding, along with his brothers Barney and Gerald, played polo in the United States throughout the 1920s and 1930s, mostly at the famed Meadow Brook Club in Westbury on Long Island, then the national center of the sport.

[2] Thoroughbred Times - 23 January 2005

[3] "Delaware Park adds five to Wall of Fame", Daily Racing Form, 12 July 2012, accessed 11 May 2013.

[4] "Windfields Farm" Archived 2014-05-03 at the Wayback Machine, NTRA biography database, accessed 16 June 2013.

[5] Thoroughbred Times - 23 January 2005

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