Top weight Tidal Bay ruled out of Grand National

Leading John Smith’s Grand National contender Tidal Bay has suffered a “tiny stress fracture” and will not run at Aintree on April 6.

Allotted top-weight of 11st 10lb in the Liverpool showpiece, the Paul Nicholls-trained 12-year-old has not run since winning the Lexus Chase at Leopardstown over Christmas.

He was forced to miss the Argento Chase at Cheltenham last month when reported to be lame, and Nicholls said in his Betfair blog: “As previously mentioned, he was slightly lame before the Argento and we couldn’t get him ready in time for that race, or the Irish Hennessy.