Jonbon Ruled Out of Grand National, Narrowing Competitive Field

Jango Baie inherits the role of new market centrepiece in the JCB Melling Chase after Nicky Henderson confirmed Jonbon will bypass the Aintree Festival entirely, ending any prospect of a third consecutive Grade 1 victory on Merseyside for the popular 10-year-old. The decision reshapes the betting card for the full three-day meeting and removes the race's most reliable focal point.

Henderson cited the cumulative toll of a compressed campaign: a hard race at Ascot in February, followed by another gruelling effort in the Ryanair Chase at the Cheltenham Festival, where Jonbon finished second. "He had a hard race at Ascot in February which was eight weeks ago and then went to Cheltenham and not surprisingly had another hard race," Henderson told the Press Association. He pointed to last season's cautionary tale as the deciding factor, noting that running through Cheltenham, Aintree and Sandown in the same spring left the horse visibly flat by the end of it. This time, he elected to skip the middle leg. Jonbon will instead target a hat-trick in the Celebration Chase at Sandown, a two-mile Grade 1 he won in both 2023 and 2024.

The withdrawal carries real weight. Jonbon was unbeaten in four starts at Aintree, and his back-to-back Melling Chase victories had made him the gravitational centre of the festival's Friday card. With him absent, Nico de Boinville, his long-time partner in the saddle, picks up the ride on Jango Baie, the Cheltenham Gold Cup runner-up trained by Willie Mullins. That booking alone signals where the market will consolidate.

Pic D'Orhy, trained by Paul Nicholls, and Harry Skelton's mount Protektorat, alongside Mullins' Impaire Et Passe, all move up the pecking order in a race that twelve months ago would have been framed entirely around a Jonbon three-peat. The key question the Melling Chase now poses is whether Jango Baie's stamina profile, proven over three miles at Cheltenham, translates to a shorter, sharper Aintree test, and whether any of the supporting cast has the pace to press him from the front.

For the Grand National proper on Saturday, the market remains anchored by I Am Maximus, the Willie Mullins-trained 2024 winner and last year's runner-up, with Grangeclare West and Cheltenham Ultima scorer Johnnywho also prominent ante-post. Jonbon was never a Grand National contender over Aintree's four miles, but his absence strips the festival of its most bankable headline act from the chasing division. When its most consistent performer steps away, the remaining field carries more uncertainty than the fixture is used to absorbing.