L'Homme Presse Ruled Out of Grand National With Lameness Injury

L'Homme Presse has been ruled out of the Grand National after trainer Venetia Williams discovered the 11-year-old gelding lame in front, in an area where he has suffered previous issues. The popular chaser could not pass the trot-up video assessment required by vets.

"I watched him work last week and it was big grins all round, but then on Tuesday morning I got a phone call from Venetia saying he was a little bit lame in front where he has had his previous issues and they couldn't trot him up and get him to pass the video needed for the vets," owner Andy Edwards told the Press Association. "He's gone into the Three Counties Equine Hospital to find out a little bit more. It's nothing serious and the X-rays haven't shown up anything horrible."

Although the injury is expected to be minor, the popular gelding will require a spell of rest and recuperation that ends any prospect of lining up at Aintree on April 11. L'Homme Presse was listed as number eight in the weights, assigned 11 stone 8 pounds by the handicapper, reflecting just how seriously he was taken as a contender before the setback.

The blow lands with particular force for Edwards, who has endured a run of misfortune that stretches well beyond one missed race. Over the last 15 months, Edwards revealed he had lost 12 horses in a row, nine to career-ending or fatal injuries in the previous year and a further three to career-ending injuries in the current year. "To have a horse run well in the Grand National would have been the culmination of everything I have tried to achieve, but sadly it is not to be," he said. Edwards also cast doubt on whether he would put the horse back into training at all, adding: "I would rather focus on his brilliance and what he has achieved from humble beginnings."

That brilliance was real. At his peak, L'Homme Presse was a high-class staying chaser who announced himself to the wider racing world by winning the 2022 Brown Advisory Novices' Chase at the Cheltenham Festival. He followed that with victory in the Cotswold Chase, a key Gold Cup trial, and produced arguably the performance of his life in the 2022 King George VI Chase at Kempton, where he unseated jockey Charlie Deutsch while just three lengths behind Bravemansgame with the race still very much alive.

Since that King George fall, injuries have defined his story more than results. He was forced to miss the Cheltenham Gold Cup and Grand National the previous season, and now the same Aintree dream has slipped away again. The 11-year-old's team were relishing a tilt at the Aintree marathon before Williams made the discovery that ended those plans.

The Grand National, held on April 11 at Aintree Racecourse, features a field of 34 runners jumping 30 fences across 4 miles and roughly 514 yards. With L'Homme Presse's withdrawal, the reserve system comes into play: up to four horses ranked 35 through 38 on the racecard are eligible to fill vacant spots up until 1:00 PM the day before the race, with the five-day confirmation stage set for Monday, April 6.

Williams, who famously trained Mon Mome to win the 2009 Grand National, is reported to be confident this is not the end for L'Homme Presse. Whether Edwards shares that optimism, given everything he has been through, is a different question entirely.