Grand National countdown: Minella Times left at top of weights

Last year’s winner Minella Times has been left at the top of the weights in Saturday’s Randox Grand National following the defection of his stablemate Chris’s Dream.

Minella Times claimed a historic victory 12 months ago as Rachael Blackmore became the first female rider to win the world’s most famous steeplechase.

But Henry de Bromhead’s nine-year-old will have to carry 11st 10lb this time around as he bids to follow in the hoofprints of Tiger Roll by successfully defending his crown.

The only other horse previously in the top 40 that has been taken out is the Mick Winters-trained Chatham Street Lad. He could instead tackle the famous fences in Friday’s Topham Chase.

The beneficiaries of the two defections are another De Bromhead runner in Poker Party and Dan Skelton’s Blaklion, who are now guaranteed a place in the field.

The top three in the market are Gordon Elliott’s Delta Work (11st 9lb), the Ted Walsh-trained Any Second Now (11st 8lb) and Snow Leopardess (10st 9lb) from Charlie Longsdon’s yard.

Elliott’s strong squad also includes Escaria Ten (11st 1lb) and Farclas (11st 1lb), while Ciaran Murphy’s Enjoy d’Allen (10st 11lb) is another leading contender from Ireland.

Elliott’s Death Duty and Sean Curran’s Domaine De L’Isle currently occupy the 41st and 42nd spots respectively.

Emma Lavelle’s Eclair Surf, second to easy Scottish National winner Win My Wings in the Eider Chase last time out, is currently 43rd on the list.

The official going at Aintree for the three-day Grand National meeting, which starts on Thursday, was changed to 'good to soft' on Monday morning following 7.5mm of rain overnight.

The description is good to soft on all courses, with the Grand National course changed from good to soft, good in places. The Mildmay (chase and hurdle) was previously good, good to soft in places.

Clerk of the course Sulekha Varma took the decision not to water on Sunday and was appreciative of the rain.

She said: “We are not expecting a deluge, but certainly expecting rain over the next couple of days. There is still some uncertainty in the forecast.

“We had a good drop of rain – 7.5mm last night – which has been a huge help, as we have been pretty much dry since March 11.

“We had that hot period as well, when the ground staff were out there in shorts and tee-shirts. It is breezy now as well. We are expecting a dry day today and there might just be the odd shower around.”

Officials opted not to continue watering on Sunday due to the uncertain forecasts, after 5mm was applied on Friday and Saturday.

Some forecasts are predicting wintry conditions over the next few days, and Varma is taking a watching brief.

She added: “It looks like there is more rain coming tonight. The challenge is the forecasts are all different. They are slowly coming together to a bit more of a consensus, but we are not quite there.

“We are expecting another 3mm-6mm tonight and showers on Wednesday as well.

“Thursday, Friday and Saturday are looking mostly dry at the moment. At one time they were suggesting it was heavy rain on Friday, but that seems to have petered out.

“The other thing is the showers could be quite wintry. There is a bit of a cold front and they are not quite sure where that front is going to settle. The good thing is, they say the snow will be over high ground, but it has the potential to be a bit wintry – in April!

“We are just having to take it day by day. We are certainly hoping that through to Thursday we won’t need to water again.

“We are good to soft on all three courses. If we get that rain tonight, with the upper end of that 6mm, we would be good to soft, soft in places, probably.”