GOLD Cup flop Coome Hill will miss the Martell Grand National and is unlikely to run again this season, Walter Dennis announced yesterday. The eight-year-old, prominent in ante-post betting since his Hennessy Cognac Gold Cup win last November, trailed in a well-beaten seventh of eight finishers behind Mr Mulligan at Cheltenham.
Bude permit-holder Dennis had been worried about running the gelding on unsuitably firm ground and revealed yesterday: "He's got a bit of sore shins. It will keep him off for a while and I wouldn't think the National will be on.
"It wasn't his true form yesterday. Jamie Osborne said he gurgled at the top of the hill and with the ground as firm as it was he just looked after him and let him come home in his own time.
"We've got the vet coming later today and we will have him scoped. I don't think he'll run again this season. But he's done very well for us, running six times, and hopefully he'll be back next term.
In contrast, John O'Shea yesterday declared his Gold Cup fourth Go Ballistic a probable runner in the big Aintree race. The news means that last year's winning jockey Mick Fitzgerald will have a leading chance to become the first man to ride successive National winners since Brian Fletcher scored on Red Rum in 1973 and 1974.
No decision has yet been made whether another Gold Cup runner, Dublin Flyer, will go for the National. The horse was reported none the worse after his second attempt at the Cheltenham feature race.
