NICK ROCKETT WILL not defend his Randox Grand National crown at Aintree on Saturday after being declared a non-runner on Thursday morning.
Owned by Bradford-based Stewart Andrews, the nine-year-old provided an emotional victory for the father-and-son team of Willie and Patrick Mullins 12 months ago, denying stablemate I Am Maximus – currently favourite for this year’s race.
Nick Rockett has only been seen once since when reappearing at Down Royal last month and there was a shock at declarations on Wednesday morning when last year’s winning jockey switched allegiance to Grangeclare West, leaving Tom Bellamy to receive the surprise call-up aboard the defending champion.
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However, Bellamy’s dream National story would barely last 24 hours, with Nick Rockett ruled out of the race having been reported to be coughing.
Patrick Mullins said: “It is 72-hour declarations for the Grand National, and we wanted to give him every chance, but he gave a few coughs this morning and that made up our mind with him.
“It is frustrating, but it was a case of everything needed to go right to get him here and, unfortunately, we just didn’t get everything go right. He could have run, but we didn’t want to do that if he wasn’t 110%.
“You need to be 110% to run in a race like the Grand National and, unfortunately, he is not at the moment. We will look at Punchestown now.”
Nick Rockett’s absence would have meant the first reserve – Pied Piper – would come into the race, but his trainer Gordon Elliott revealed he would also miss out.
Elliott said: “He doesn’t run, he’s lame. He’s at home, we didn’t even load him as he was lame yesterday evening.”
Pied Piper’s absence means a starting spot for Philip Hobbs and Johnson White’s Imperial Saint, with Spillane’s Tower also exiting the race after running in the Bowl on Thursday.
That allows Amirite to become the latest reserve to get a run with the deadline for changes to the final line-up 1pm on Friday.
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Willie Mullins' reigning champion Nick Rockett ruled out of Grand National
NICK ROCKETT WILL not defend his Randox Grand National crown at Aintree on Saturday after being declared a non-runner on Thursday morning.
Owned by Bradford-based Stewart Andrews, the nine-year-old provided an emotional victory for the father-and-son team of Willie and Patrick Mullins 12 months ago, denying stablemate I Am Maximus – currently favourite for this year’s race.
Nick Rockett has only been seen once since when reappearing at Down Royal last month and there was a shock at declarations on Wednesday morning when last year’s winning jockey switched allegiance to Grangeclare West, leaving Tom Bellamy to receive the surprise call-up aboard the defending champion.
However, Bellamy’s dream National story would barely last 24 hours, with Nick Rockett ruled out of the race having been reported to be coughing.
Patrick Mullins said: “It is 72-hour declarations for the Grand National, and we wanted to give him every chance, but he gave a few coughs this morning and that made up our mind with him.
“It is frustrating, but it was a case of everything needed to go right to get him here and, unfortunately, we just didn’t get everything go right. He could have run, but we didn’t want to do that if he wasn’t 110%.
“You need to be 110% to run in a race like the Grand National and, unfortunately, he is not at the moment. We will look at Punchestown now.”
Nick Rockett’s absence would have meant the first reserve – Pied Piper – would come into the race, but his trainer Gordon Elliott revealed he would also miss out.
Elliott said: “He doesn’t run, he’s lame. He’s at home, we didn’t even load him as he was lame yesterday evening.”
Pied Piper’s absence means a starting spot for Philip Hobbs and Johnson White’s Imperial Saint, with Spillane’s Tower also exiting the race after running in the Bowl on Thursday.
That allows Amirite to become the latest reserve to get a run with the deadline for changes to the final line-up 1pm on Friday.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Aintree Grand National Horse Racing Nick Rockett Non-runner