Welsh National defence deemed to come too soon for Nassalam

Nassalam will not get the chance to defend his Coral Welsh Grand National crown at Chepstow.

Gary and Josh Moore’s charge was a spectacular winner of the race 12 months ago, romping home by 34 lengths on heavy ground under Caoilin Quinn. However, things have not gone to plan since then, with the seven-year-old completing only one of his subsequent four outings.

He was pulled up in the Cheltenham Gold Cup before trailing home a well-beaten 18th in the Grand National at Aintree.

This term, Nassalam was always behind and tailed off when pulled up at Chepstow in October and, despite being prominent early on, suffered the same fate at Cheltenham last month.

He was still towards the head of the Welsh National ante-post betting, but a training setback has ruled out any hope of a repeat success on December 27.

Josh Moore said: “He won’t make it. He’s missed too much work, so that’s out of the picture for him now. He’ll hopefully be back for the Grand National Trial in February at Haydock.”

Monbeg Genius is now the 5-1 favourite (from 6-1) with sponsors Coral, ahead of Broadway Boy and Where It All Began at 6-1.