Watch the full interview
From 6:35 in Thursday’s episode of Nick Luck Daily. Press play to start at the interview.
Andrew Balding says it would be “nice to put that right” as he chases a first Breeders’ Cup winner at Keeneland, with stable star Blue Bolt leading his three-strong team.
“We haven’t had that many runners, but we haven’t come close to winning one,” Balding told Nick Luck before supervising his trio on Thursday morning. “I think you need the right horses, and just in the last six or seven years we’ve had access to the appropriate horses. That’s been the main reason.”
He said the trip was a welcome break from the end of the British season. “It’s something we always look forward to, coming to focus on three horses rather than having to worry about a couple of hundred,” he said. “Blue Bolt has had an amazing season, and it’s just nice to have a bit of one-to-one with her.”
“We probably won’t feel any pressure until Saturday afternoon, but if there’s an expectation there, it always adds a little bit of weight.”
Andrew Balding on Blue Bolt
Long season the only worry
Blue Bolt, unbeaten this season, runs in the Filly & Mare Turf. Balding has said the length of her campaign concerns him more than the extra distance, but he is encouraged by what he has seen. “It’s so difficult to read at this time of year,” he said. “She still looks well. She’s had a clip, so obviously her coat’s changed, but she seems relaxed, and that’s the main thing. Her last work a week ago at Kingsclere was very strong.”
She was due to have a look at the turf course on Thursday. “We’re going to go on the grass so she has a look at the turf track and a wheel around left-handed, but apart from that, everything’s done,” he said.
Moonrise has ‘a good chance’
Of his two juveniles, Balding is most hopeful about Moonrise in the Juvenile Turf Sprint. “She looks to be a natural-speed filly,” he said. “Dropping back half a furlong, having set some pretty strong fractions in the Cheveley Park and still run a good race, suggests it should suit her.” Scommessa Sicura runs in the Juvenile Fillies Turf.
Title race goes on
Balding is still chasing Aidan O’Brien for the British trainers’ championship, and noticed the Ballydoyle team have not given up on the home front either. “I was looking through the declarations on the way here,” he said. “Three in the Horris Hill and three in the Montrose, so he’s obviously out to win it. We’ll just chip away and do what we can. It’s fun, but he wants to win.”
