ThoroughBid, racing’s online auction house, are celebrating another big spring festival winner with Gracchus De Balme, who landed the Aintree Randox Foxhunters' Open Hunters' Chase today.
Purchased for £12,500 at ThoroughBid’s July Sale last year, the nine-year-old had had three starts for his new connections before today’s race, and despite needing to reverse the form with a number of his rivals, trainer Joe O’Shea was very confident:
“I knew for a fact My Drogo couldn’t beat us today. We were a stone-and-a-half better today compared to the Walrus,” said O’Shea, who explained how the horse has progressed since joining the yard in the summer having previously been with Joseph O’Brien in Ireland:
“He came a bit highly-strung and we had a bit of a job settling him down. We then got him ready for a run a Knightwick in November, where he was the biggest certainty ever, and he won well. After that, the plan was to go for the Walrus, but he ended up missing six weeks with a setback. That’s what cost us the Walrus.
Recalling the day he was bidding on the horse, O’Shea said: “I fell in love with him when I saw his pictures on the ThoroughBid site, so I phoned up Joseph [O’Brien] and he said he’s a grand horse that was just too high in the handicap.
%uD83D%uDE4C GRACCHUS DE BALME! %uD83D%uDE4C
— ThoroughBid (@thorough_bid) April 4, 2025
%uD835%uDC01%uD835%uDC1A%uD835%uDC1C%uD835%uDC24-%uD835%uDC2D%uD835%uDC28-%uD835%uDC1B%uD835%uDC1A%uD835%uDC1C%uD835%uDC24 %uD835%uDC30%uD835%uDC22%uD835%uDC27%uD835%uDC27%uD835%uDC1E%uD835%uDC2B%uD835%uDC2C of the Aintree Foxhunters' for ThoroughBid graduates, following Its On The Line's win in 2024.#SellingWinners pic.twitter.com/hQTm7gShv9
“Hannah [Roach] and I stood there following the bids, and his price kept on going up every few minutes, but we had a limit of £15,000 and thankfully we managed to get him for just slightly less. I probably would have even bid a little bit more as I loved him as soon as I saw him. He arrived at the yard four days later and the rest is now history!”
Gracchus De Balme is ThoroughBid’s second winning graduate of the race, having sold last year’s champion, Its On The Line.
James Richardson, CEO of ThoroughBid, said: “Having back-to-back wins with ThoroughBid graduates in the Foxhunters’ at Aintree is brilliant. Gracchus De Balme was really well-bought by the O’Shea team and shrewdly campaigned, so congratulations to everyone involved. It’s great to see one from a top yard like Joseph O’Brien’s go on and be a star for somebody else.”
ThoroughBid’s next sale is the April Sale, which takes place on Tuesday 29th April. Entries close on Friday 18th April. For more details, visit: https://thoroughbid.co.uk/home
