Gracchus De Balme

The two most recent wins tell you everything about where this horse belongs. In April 2025, he won a Class 2 race at Aintree, one of the most famous venues in the sport — the home of the Grand National. That was no fluke. Trainer Joe O'Shea had been planning the Aintree run for six months, and when the horse swept past him on the course he reportedly told his head girl Hannah Roach — who had suffered a serious back injury in a fall at the yard — that they'd won. It was that kind of day. Then, six weeks later, Gracchus De Balme went to Stratford-on-Avon and did it again, taking another Class 2 prize in late May. Back-to-back wins at that level, at ten years old, is genuinely impressive.

His regular rider J J Slevin has been aboard for 9 of his 19 races and the pair have won 2 of them together — a 22% win rate, just over 1 in every 4 rides. After that very first career win at Clonmel in February 2022, Slevin noted the horse had battled hard from the final fence and suggested he could stretch to even longer distances. Three years on, that assessment has proven accurate — this is a horse that keeps finding more when it matters.

Joe O'Shea's yard in Nantwich, Cheshire has sent out 8 winners this season, and Gracchus De Balme has contributed two of the most significant. Recent form of 7-–-–-1-2-1 shows those blank runs sandwiched between some serious performances. The horse raced just one day ago and remains in active training. At an age when many horses have long since retired, Gracchus De Balme is still turning up at the biggest venues and winning. That, in itself, is the story.