THE Balding connection with Mount Atlas has to be one of the most enduring of modern times, and it is little wonder that Andrew was somewhat overcome when the five-year-old gelding recorded the biggest win of his career at Ascot on Saturday. Indeed, the fact that he is a son of Sunnyhill Stud’s Masar (New Approach) is about the only non-Balding thing about this pedigree.

Mount Atlas traces back to his sixth dam, Anippe (Aggressor), born in 1963. She was trained by Ian Balding and as a two-year-old was one of his earliest runners from Kingsclere, winning two of her five career starts and placed in a couple of good races, the Sandleford Priory Stakes at Newbury and the Galtres Stakes at York. Ian, or his son Andrew, have trained the Group 1 winner’s first six dams.