Image © Grossick Photography / The Jockey Club
Gracchus De Balme handed his Nantwich-based trainer Joe O’Shea with a second success in the Randox Foxhunters’ Chase over the Grand National fences at Aintree.
O’Shea had previously saddled Cousin Pascal to victory in the contest four years ago and today Gracchus De Balme came home a length to the good over Jet Plane.
Pat Doyle’s Lifetime Ambition finished best of the Irish raiders when he finished strongly to take third, beaten just over two lengths.
The prominent Milan Forth was next best of the Irish having given his young rider Kevin Healy a great spin to finish seventh, whilst Annamix and Willitgoahead also made the top ten, finishing in nineth and tenth positions respectively.
Gracchus De Balme wins the Randox Foxhunters' Open Hunters' Chase for Joe O'Shea and Huw Edwards! %uD83E%uDD47#ITVRacing pic.twitter.com/iLev18ZcVs
— ITV Racing (@itvracing) April 3, 2025
The trainer said: “We made the plan six months ago. My head girl Anna (Roach) had a nasty accident on the gallops in November and I said to her then that I’d win this for you, don’t you worry.
“The right horse won and the money was on. Once he went past me at the Grand National start I said to Anna ‘we’ve won this’. She had the best hunter chaser in the country, and he got a leg and she broke her back. We’ve got to do an Aldaniti and come back to win this next year with Iskander Pecos.”
“This is better than four years ago. Where we are in Cheshire everyone is a hunting person and it was a shame there was nobody here as it was a Covid year. This is what we missed. We are going to make up for it. We’ve won in front of our home crowd. We are only 15 or 20 miles away.”
Anna Roach added: “When I broke my back and Iskander Pecos got an injury too it was the worst day of my life, but this horse winning like that is unbelievable and a great achievement. I can’t believe we’ve won it again after winning four years ago with Cousin Pascal. Honestly it’s so emotional.”
The winning rider Huw Edwards said: “He jumped and travelled; I kept filling him up the whole way and he’s seen it out well. It’s brilliant. The start was a bit messy but he travels and jumps well so he took me there, and he was spot on the rest of the way. I could hear them coming, but I was too scared to have a look, really. He didn’t feel tired and he just kept finding.
“Coming into the Elbow I thought I’d get beat, but he stayed on so well. My grandfather rode in 12 Nationals and finished third once [on Peacetown, in 1964].
“I ride out for Joe most days and he does so well with his horses. It’s great - I can’t really believe it. The horse was cheap and to have come and done this - it’s brilliant. I don’t know what to think!”
The winner had started his career winning a four-year-old maiden at Lisronagh for Kieran Purcell in 2020, before joining Joseph O’Brien, for whom he won twice, before being sold for £12,500 at an online ThoroughBid auction to Hannah Roach.
It is the second year in a row that the Aintree Foxhunters winner has emerged from a ThoroughBid sale, with the 2024 victor, Its On The Line having been bought in one of their online auctions in 2022 for £8,000.
