Reigning Grand National champion Nick Rockett will not compete in Saturday's race at Aintree, after being declared a non-runner on Thursday morning due to a cough.
The nine-year-old, owned by Bradford-based Stewart Andrews, delivered an emotional victory for trainer Willie Mullins and his son Patrick just 12 months ago, denying stablemate I Am Maximus – currently favourite for this year’s race.
Nick Rockett has only been seen once since, reappearing at Down Royal last month. A surprising development on Wednesday saw last year’s winning jockey, Patrick Mullins, switch allegiance to Grangeclare West, leaving Tom Bellamy to receive the unexpected call-up aboard the defending champion.
However, Bellamy’s dream National ride would barely last 24 hours, with Nick Rockett subsequently ruled out of the race after reportedly developing a cough.
Patrick Mullins explained the difficult decision, stating: "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 per cent. You need to be 110 per cent 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. However, his trainer Gordon Elliott revealed that he too would 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 now means a starting spot for Philip Hobbs and Johnson White’s Imperial Saint. The deadline for any further changes to the final line-up is 1pm on Friday.
