If number-crunching is popular with those who analyse racing, few have fared better this season than Andrew Balding. September dawned with Balding having eclipsed his previous best total of winners in Britain, and he has returned a handsome level-stakes profit. Yet if that sounds impressive, the man himself is a little non-plussed.

Loch Verdi, who contests a group three sprint at Newbury tomorrow, makes a perfect vignette of his pragmatism. The filly is out of Lochsong, the electric champion sprinter trained by Balding's father, Ian. Just as great things are demanded of Lochsong's progeny, similar expectations accompanied the succession at Park House Stables, which is long-time home to the Balding clan.

The standard confronting Balding is evident on visiting a stable where yards are named after the best of their previous inhabitants. Those of Ormonde and Flying Fox commemorate a pair of Triple Crown winners, while the Mill Reef yard celebrates that outstanding runner of the early 1970s. The message is clear: winners alone are simply not enough.

To his credit, Balding has already christened the Casual Look yard after the Oaks winner he trained in 2003, his inaugural season. “It is nice to have lots of winners,” he said, “but in the end, it boils down to big winners. That's how you are remembered, and that's the one thing we are lacking this year.”

That is not entirely surprising. Balding, 35, is blessed to have taken over at what is effectively a sporting estate, but the succession came at a time when many long-standing patrons passed out of the sport - or passed away altogether. Mill Reef's owner, the late Paul Mellon, is a case in point. And Will Farish, the American owner-breeder of Casual Look, no longer races horses in England.

Balding is thus preoccupied with rebuilding the patron base. “The average price we spend on a yearling is around £30,000,” he said. “That might sound a lot, but in reality, it's not that much. And that makes it tougher.”

All the more so when “predatory” owners for horses in training populate the sport like never before. Conversely, in the case of George Strawbridge, one of the last of Balding's old-school patrons, only the best will do.

Balding recently lost one of his brightest prospects in the Strawbridge-owned Blue Sky Basin. “Basically, George wants group winners,” Balding reflected. “The horse might have been one next year, but he was also a gelding. And we did receive a very good offer.

“That's always going to happen,” he continued. It's a part of where we are at. You just have to hope that when you get the really good horse, you can hang on to it. That wasn't a problem in my father's time, but it is now.”

There's much of his father in the man whose life has been a virtual mirror image to date. Senior prefect at Radley, where he was captain of rugby - the sport at which Ian won a Cambridge Blue, Balding now takes financial responsibility at a place populated by 40 full-time staff. The overheads must be vast.

In addition to the stable there's the stud, which leases horses to the Kingsclere Racing Club. The estate also hosts shooting and drag-hunting. There is even a football pitch, and more recently, the introduction of a polo pitch overseen with great zeal by Ian.

In Balding's favour is his quietly gregarious nature. Stranded up at York when the Ebor meeting was abandoned last month, Balding and his wife, Anna-Lisa, decided to “go clubbing” with their owners. “I can't think of a job where you get to meet so many different and successful people,” he said. “I have got the best bunch of owners and I really enjoy sharing the highs and lows with them.

“This has become a very competitive business,” he continued, “but we are not too badly positioned. And of course, it's a privilege to be doing something you love.”

If much rests on his shoulders, he does not let it show. Perhaps that is why he was recently quoted by bookmakers as favourite to be champion trainer 15 years from now.