Top weight Tidal Bay ruled out of Grand National
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.
“He was out cantering as usual on Monday and Tuesday, but on Wednesday we decided to step up his work. But his work rider came back up and said he didn’t feel right. So we immediately called in Buffy (Shirley-Beavan) and, after discussions, we got him down to Newmarket today for an MRI scan.
“The news through is that Tidal Bay has a tiny stress fracture of the lower cannon bone on his right hind leg. This is something that the X-rays we took before his problem in the Argento didn’t pick up; only today’s MRI did.
“He needs a month’s box rest, so that rules out the National.
Owner Wylie said: “He’s out for the season, I’m afraid. We need to do our best for the horse’s welfare and he’ll have plenty of box rest before we can hopefully get him back next season.”
Wylie still has two strong National chances with the Willie Mullins-trained pair of On His Own and Prince De Beauchene vying for favouritism.
With Tidal Bay ruled out of the race, the weights will rise at least 2lb with Albertas Run the new top weight.
