Andrew Balding has described training Kalpana to victory in the King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Royal Ascot as the standout win of his career, ranking it above all of his roughly 2,000 winners to date. The result carries added significance as it came six months after the death of his father, the legendary trainer Ian Balding, who won the same race in 1971 with Mill Reef, making it the second King George triumph for the family's Park House Stables in Hampshire.

Kalpana, having finished second in the race a year earlier, held off a late challenge from reigning champion Calandagan to win by one and a half lengths on Saturday. Balding admitted his team had expected an even stronger field than in 2025 and would have been content with third place. The victory, worth £1.3m as Britain's richest race, together with another win for Item at York, has also boosted the 53-year-old's position in the trainers' championship, closing the gap on leader Aidan O'Brien. Kalpana is now expected to head to the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe in October.