THOUSANDS of racing fans will be flocking to Chepstow racecourse on Friday (December 27) for Wales' biggest race – the £150,000 Coral Welsh Grand National.

But last year’s emphatic winner Nassalam will miss the chance to feed his crown after being pulled out yesterday (Friday, December 20).

The seven-year-old, trained by father and son duo Gary and Josh Moore at their West Sussex yard cruised to a 34L win in last year’s race.

Trainer Josh Moore told At The Races: "He's missed some key bits of work at home, he just needs a bit of time and this has come too soon."

The Jonjo O’Neill-trained Monbeg Genius, who was the 5-1 favourite for the race last year before he developed a small abscess days before and had to be withdrawn, has now been installed as bookmakers' favourite again.

Second to Wye Valley-trained Fontaine Collonges in a competitive 3m1½f handicap chase on November 23 at Haydock , he should come on for that run and Jonjo also believes that the Shantou-gelding can be an Aintree Grand National contender too.

But there is no way Venetia Williams' Fontaine Collonges should be almost twice the price of Monbeg Genius, with the Ross-on-Wye trainer recently saddling no end of big race winners.

Meanwhile, Monmouthshire Gold Cup winning jockey-turned-trainer Sam Thomas knows all about winning the race, with 2021 champion Iwilldoit entered again priced at 20-1, alongside Good Risk At All, who hasn't raced in more than 360 days priced at 25-1.

Thomas (and owner Dai Walters) also has Jubilee Express entered and the seven-year-old fits just about every trend other than the fact he’s not been out since March.

The Coral Welsh National is at 2.50pm and is live on ITV4.