A View From the Boundary
England v South Africa, Edgbaston, 26 July 2003 |
 |  It was a great moment when Clare was commentating and Andrew won the Oaks |
The life of a horse racing trainer is hardly conducive to lazy summers of watching cricket. Up at the crack of dawn, and earlier when the cock crows later, Ian Balding's career as a trainer has dominated a life that was full of sporting promise in his youth.
But despite apperances at Lord's and Twickenham, his destiny was always on the gallops, and ultimately in the winners' enclosure.
The son of one of the greats of English polo who was also a National Hunt trainer, his brother Toby and son Andrew are trainers, as was his late father-in-law Peter Hastings.
For good measure, Ian's daughter Clare is the face of racing on the BBC.
"Racing goes in families. My brother and I more or less rode before we could walk and we were Dad's cheap labour from an early age," Balding explained.
"From the age of 12 I started riding race horses and my first ride in a race came at the age of 16. I'm really just a frustrated jockey.
"I was Toby's main jockey while helping him to train, but was suddenly plucked to go as assistant trainer to Peter Hastings at Kingsclere.
"I'd only been there three months when he tragically died and was persuaded to take over at the end of the year.
"The jockey club wouldn't let you ride as an amateur and train as a professional so I had to give up the riding. It was a great disappointment."
Having been stymied from wearing silks, Balding had a remarkably successful career as a trainer before retiring at the start of 2003 after 40 years of training winners.
| He was the horse of a lifetime, absolutely sensational and the best I've ever seen over a mile-and-a-half |
And it is 32 years since his greatest triumphs with the legendary Mill Reef, who won the Derby, the Eclipse Stakes, the King George and Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes and the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe in 1971. As well as being a "frustrated jockey", Balding could be described as frustrated cricketer.
For many people, a match-winning innings at Lord's would be the stuff of legend, but for Balding there are more cherished cricketing memories.
His outing at headquarters came in the now defunct Marlborough v Rugby schoolboys' match.
"I didn't bowl in those days, but fielded quite well and batted at number six," Balding explained.
"It was a very low-scoring game and I top scored with 36, so happily, on the one day it mattered most, I did bat reasonably well.
"But my best cricketing memory was going on tour with Jim Swanton's Arabs team to Barbados.
"Tony Lewis, my great mate, was captain. I wasn't probably good enough to go on the team but I think Tony said 'If he doesn't go I don't go'.
"Jim accepted and I was very much the baggage man although I played a few games and much enjoyed it.
"I played occasionally for the Arabs after that, but I remember Jim complaining like made one day when I was playing for Henry Porchester against the Arabs.
"I bowled very slow off spinners with a crooked arm, although because they were so slow nobody minded.
"But Jim did because I took three wickets against his team and he spread the word that Balding was a chucker."
Balding met Lewis, a former England captain, having arrived at Cambridge University on the same day. The pair fought over the full back position in the Blue team, with Lewis winning the nod in the first year, before Balding ran out at Twickenham in his final year.
Despite his cricketing and rugby claims to fame, it is racing that is the sport that has always been in his heart.
However, his retirement should allow him the chance to savour some lazy days of cricket in summers of the future. 
MMIX
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