Court Maid won't be making her debut for the Henry De Bromhead stable in the Randox Grand National – as the trainer confirmed the mare will be missing from the final 40-strong field at Aintree Racecourse.
De Bromhead saddled a one-two in the Aintree showpiece last year with Minella Times helping Rachael Blackmore to become the first female rider to win the world's greatest steeplechase as he beat stable-mate Balko Des Flos.
Minella Times – a best-priced 16-1 with Paddy Power, Betfair and Unibet – will carry top weight in his bid to defend his crown on Saturday, but Court Maid has been ruled out after a late setback.
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DAY ONE: Grand National 2022 runners, riders and odds for Thursday races
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Court Maid, who had been switched to De Bromhead's stable from Tom Mullins having been bought by the Smurfit family, had been number 23 on the list of runners and was around a 50-1 chance with most bookmakers. The nine-year-old mare was an eight-time winner for Mullins, including the Porterstown Handicap Chase at Fairyhouse in 2020. But now she won't be part of De Bromhead team for the National with just Poker Party joining Minella Times in the line-up.
De Bromhead confirmed: "Unfortunately Court Maid is not going to run. I just haven't been 100 per cent happy with her and she won't make it. Poker Party, who will be ridden by (2007 Grand National-winning jockey) Robbie Power, will join Minella Times in the race."
Court Maid's defection followed on from triple Grand National-winning trainer Gordon Elliott taking Battleoverdoyen out of the race which means that Sean Curran's Domaine De L'Isle is now the 40th horse on the list with Death Duty at 39.
Battleoverdoyen will instead run in the Randox Topham Chase over the Grand National fences on Ladies Day at Aintree.
Elliott will still have eight of the 40 runners, including Death Duty, in the National now and one of those Samcro will be partnered by Sean Bowen.
The 10-year-old has won Grade Ones over hurdles and fences at the Cheltenham Festival in the past, but will be tackling this sort of marathon trip for the first time.
The County Meath handler said: "Samcro definitely runs. He's a massive price, but it wouldn't shock me if he ran a big race. It would be a Samcro thing to do, wouldn't it? Run a massive race in something like the Grand National.
"I've been delighted with him over the last few weeks since Down Royal and I think he has come on plenty for that run. He could just take to the fences and, if he does, you never know what he might do. He might not be the horse he was, but he seems to be in a very good place at the moment."
Elliott's Delta Work – who beat dual Grand National hero Tiger Roll on his final career start in the Glenfarclas Cross Country Chase at last month's Cheltenham Festival – is among the favourites at the moment and is a best-priced 8-1 with several firms.
Charlie Longsdon's Becher Chase winner Snow Leopardess has been the best backed horse this week. That is in part due to her backstory being the only mother in the race having had a foal to 2006 Derby winner Sir Percy in late 2020 before coming back to shine on the track.
She is also 8-1 with last year's third, the Ted Walsh-trained Any Second Now, also among the market leaders at a best-priced 10-1 with William Hill.
Another well-backed contender is Emma Lavelle's Classic Chase winner Eclair Surf, despite not being guaranteed a run just yet. He is a 14-1 chance with most bookmakers ahead of the final declaration stage of 11am on Thursday morning. But he still needs one more defection to be guaranteed a run in the world's greatest steeplechase. He will be the first reserve if there are no further absentees ahead of the Henry Daly-trained recent Ascot winner Fortescue.
Both horses now have the same official handicap rating and were also allotted the same weight for the race in February. A random ballot was used to decide who would be first reserve and that was already conducted.
Weatherbys' communications director, Nick Craven, said it was ballot was made in February at the time the weights were released, in case it should be needed. He said: "Between the entries originally being published and the declaration stage, horses with the same weight may have ‘flip-flopped’ during that time. In the cases of Eclair Surf and Fortescue, the ratings for both horses have changed in the last few months but they now have the same official rating again – currently 147. So the balloting sequence that resulted in Éclair Surf being above Fortescue still comes into play."
Meanwhile ahead of Thursday's start to the three-day Grand National Festival, Aintree officials begin watering on Wednesday morning due to the forecast for mostly dry weather on Merseyside.
Forecasts have changed in the build-up to the meeting and with a less-than-expected 0.6mm of rain falling on Tuesday night and 0.8mm in the previous 24 hours, clerk of the course Sulekha Varma decided to selectively water parts of the course. There was 4mm-5mm applied to the Grand National course overnight on Tuesday and similar was being applied to the Mildmay and hurdles courses.
At 9am on Wednesday morning, Varma said: "We have decided to water parts of the Mildmay and Hurdle courses this morning, selective watering.
"We have got the prospect of another dry, breezy day today and the sun is currently shining and so we just need to ensure it doesn't dry out to an unacceptable level.
"We are putting on 2mm-3mm. Our aim is always to start the meeting on good to soft ground.
"The Grand National course we don't want any faster than good to soft. The Mildmay course we have to take day by day. There might be 'good in places' by Saturday, but we will water overnight if we need to."
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The latest GoingStick reading on the Mildmay Chase course is 6.0 and the Hurdle course is 5.3, while the National course is 6.0.
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