Balanchine

Balanchine (16 April 1991 – 18 February 2021) was a Thoroughbred racehorse, bred in the United States and trained in the United Kingdom and Dubai. In a racing career which lasted from September 1993 until October 1995 she ran eight times and won four races. After winning both her races as a two-year-old Balanchine was narrowly beaten in the 1994 1000 Guineas before winning the Classic Epsom Oaks. She then recorded her most important success when defeating male opposition in the 1994 Irish Derby. After recovering from a life-threatening illness, she returned in 1995 but failed to win. Balanchine was one of the first important successes for Godolphin Racing. Background Balanchine was a "big, handsome" chestnut mare, with a prominent white blaze and a long white sock on her near-hind leg. She was bred in the US by the Swettenham Stud, the breeding operation of her original owner, Robert Sangster. She was sired by the European Champion Two-Year-Old Storm Bird, out of the Affirmed mare Morning Devotion, making her a half-sister to the Sun Chariot Stakes winner Red Slippers. She was originally sent into training with Peter Chapple-Hyam at Manton. Racing career 1993: two-year-old season Balanchine ran twice as a juvenile in September 1993. Her reputation obviously preceded her, as she was made 1/2 favourite for a fifteen-runner maiden race at Salisbury which she "easily" won by three lengths. Two weeks later at Newbury she led all the way to win a minor stakes event by seven lengths at odds of 2/11 in "impressive" style.