New Horizon - Issue 3 - Agriculture

© Hugh Routledge
Long-term, reliable
performance is a winner
ideal form for the training programs of the day. In the season,
the grass gallops are also mown every day.”
Rob Bettany and his team, take care of the
all-weather surfaces on a daily basis.
Considered to be one of the best-equipped horse racing
establishments in the world, Park House Stables, near
Kingsclere, Hampshire has an enviable record of success.
When you read through the annals of horse racing history,
their achievements have been impressive - including the
1972 Derby winner, Mill Reef - trained by the then Champion
Trainer Ian Balding. Today, headed-up by Trainer, Andrew
Balding, the Kingsclere team last year recorded their most
successful year ever with some 128 winners and prize
money exceeding £3.5 Million.
Park House Stables is based on 400 acres of grassland - forming
the nucleus of the training facility, paddocks and gallops.
Another 600 acres of arable land is farmed by family, alongside
the stables and is run as a separate entity. Anna Lisa Balding,
Trainer Andrew Balding’s wife commented, “We house around
two hundred (200) Thoroughbreds at Kingsclere, mostly for
private owners and syndicates and we also train horses for Her
Majesty the Queen.”
As the weather in the UK is so changeable and often
inclement, Kingsclere runs several grass gallops and allweather
surfaces, which are maintained daily to ensure perfect
training conditions for daily use. Added Anna Lisa, “Around
ninety-per cent (90%) of the daily training routine is focussed
on artificial, all-weather gallops. In order to maintain those
gallops to provide the perfect training environment, we
have a team of professionals who are dedicated to that very
purpose. Every day, the artificial gallops are serviced with a
specially-designed, multi-purpose cultivator that leaves it in an
Kingsclere runs John Deere tractors on the farm and, specifically
for the stable, muck clearance and training work are using a
John Deere 5085, a John Deere 6110MC and a John Deere
5100R with JD543R Front Loader. “We have an approach at Park
House Stables,” commented Ana Lisa, “where we make sure
that everything we do and invest in, is the best possible quality
at every level, because it reflects on our success and how we
achieve that success, We’ve used John Deere tractors for as
long as I can remember and we get them through our local John
Deere dealer, the Hunt Forest Group. We use our tractors every
day of the week, they need to be reliable and give us long-term
service, without breakdowns. The after-sales service back-up
we get from the Hunt Forest Group is absolutely first-class and
we cannot fault the supportive back-up that we get from Jamie
Fisher and his colleagues.”
Typical daily usage moving and spreading muck, grass-topping
and all-weather gallop maintenance means that the tractors are
used every day, clock-up around 1500 hours per year and are fully
serviced directly by Hunt Forest. “Whenever we have needed a
technician for our tractors,” enthused Anna Lisa, “Hunt Forest
have been there at the drop of
a hat and nothing has been too
much trouble - they really do take
care of us. When we acquired
the John Deere 5085 in 2016, it
replaced an old John Deere 5400
that was well over twenty years
old and had given us excellent
reliability and service. Based on
our experience, the John Deere
product and the back-up we get
from Hunt Forest, reflects the
level of attention to detail that we
apply to our own philosophy when
taking care of highly valuable
race-horses. So we know, when we
are onto a winner.”
Trainer, Andrew Balding (left)
and Anna Lisa Balding (right)
“Hunt Forest have been there
at the drop of a hat and nothing
has been too much trouble.”
6 HUNTFOREST.COM