RACING: Denman has been scratched from the John Smith's Grand National following his comeback defeat at Kempton on Saturday. Trainer Paul Nicholls officially took last season's Cheltenham Gold Cup hero out of the Aintree marathon this morning.
Weights for the race, for which the nine-year-old was ante-post favourite at around 10-1, will be unveiled tomorrow.
Denman was certain to have headed the weights for the National after being among the 123 entries for the £900,000 (€1million) handicap chase over four and a half miles on April 4th.
However, connections have decided to give it a miss this year and concentrate on defending his Gold Cup crown following his 23-length defeat by Madison Du Berlais in the Levy Board Chase. It was his first loss in 10 starts over fences.
Nicholls withdrew the horse after speaking with joint owners Harry Findlay and Paul Barber last night.
"He's absolutely fine. I had a chat with Paul and Harry last night and collectively we decided it was the right thing to do this year in the circumstances of the run on Saturday," said the Ditcheat trainer.
"We are just going to concentrate on getting him right for the Gold Cup.
"He's A1 but with the weights coming out on Tuesday, we just wanted to end any speculation and get it sorted out.
"I let the handicapper Phil (Smith) know last night because obviously I didn't want to cause him any unnecessary headaches and to tell him our intentions and we've let everyone know this morning.
"It's not that there's anything wrong with him - he's 100 per cent - and he's come out of the race fine."
Following Saturday's defeat, Denman has been deposed as favourite for the Gold Cup on March 13th. He is 9-2 with the sponsors while his stablemate Kauto Star is now top of the list at 7-4.