Gracchus De Balme lifts Foxhunters’ crown at Aintree Gracchus De Balme was a very game winner of the Randox Foxhunters’ Open Hunters Chase at Aintree. Ridden positively throughout by Huw Edwards, the nine-year-old looked beaten when he was passed by Dan Skelton’s Jet Plane after the last. It was to his immense credit that the 22-1 chance battled back and went on to win by a length. Lifetime Ambition was third with former classy hurdler and chaser My Drogo fourth. It was a second win in the race for trainer Joe O’Shea, but he explained why this one meant more. O’Shea said: “When we had the winner in 2021 (Cousin Pascal) there was no one here, it was covid year. “As we’re only 15 or 20 miles away, we’re in proper hunter chase country and we’ve brought a coach load today. “I’ve been very ill over the summer, I had a heart operation and my head girl Anna (Roach) broke her back on the gallops. But I kept saying to her ‘don’t worry, we’ll win the Foxhunters’. “This horse is so fast he can play table tennis on his own!” Sans Bruit, back down to the exact same mark off which he won the Close Brothers Red Rum Handicap Chase 12 months ago, repeated the dose. Last year he was ridden from the front by Bryony Frost and this time around, with Frost now riding in France, it was Paul Nicholls’ stable jockey Harry Cobden doing the steering. While Gunsight Ridge gave his supporters brief hope, Cobden kicked again two out and went away to win by four and a half lengths from Calico, a fourth second on the afternoon for Dan Skelton. Nicholls said: “That was good, obviously it suits him here. He takes forever to come right and the sunshine in the spring has been massive for him. “He’s just been running on the wrong ground all winter. He ran well in the Haldon Gold Cup first time out and he was just too high in the weights after that on soft ground. He’s just come right in himself today and was going to be hard to beat off that mark. “Winners at these big meetings do mean a lot. We had a winner at Cheltenham and a winner here, the horses are running really well at the minute and we’ve got a lot to come yet over the next couple of days.” Seo Linn (15-8 favourite), not seen since winning at Cheltenham in November, provided top Flat jockey Billy Lee with a winner at the Grand National meeting in the Goffs Nickel Coin Mares’ bumper. Paddy Twomey had kept his five-year-old fresh and she showed that in the early stages, racing keenly. Having cruised into the lead, she then had to be brave to see off La Conquiere by half a length. Twomey said: “She’s a nice filly and we kind of waited (after Cheltenham) as we could only run in one more bumper and we thought this would be a good race. It’s great it worked out. “I think she’ll be a good filly on the Flat. There’s every chance she’ll start off in a maiden and go through the grades. There’s a good staying programme there for her and we’ll see how we go. “She’s grown up with racing. She was a little bit fractious at Cheltenham, but she’s learning as she’s going and she’s improving.”
