#UK RACING GRAND NATIONAL: MINELLA TIMES CARRIES TOP WEIGHT IN 2022 EDITION

Jockey Rachael Blackmore seeking a double

KINGSTON, Jamaica - Minella Times, last year’s winner with 10st 3lbs on his back and the mount of Rachael Blackmore, will now carry top weight of 11st 10lbs in the 2022 Grand National after his stable companion Chris’s Dream, who was heading the weights, was one of five horses to come out of the race at the five-day entry stage. The Grand National will be run at Aintree on Saturday next (April 9, 2022).

It means that to win it again Blackmore’s mount would have to put up the best weight-carrying performance in the race since Red Rum won his second National with 12st in 1974.

Though 73 still remain engaged, the make and shape of this year’s National looks pretty set with only last minute set-backs likely to rule any of the top 40, the maximum field size, out of the race. Deise Aba, Blaklion and Poker Party squeezed into the contest on Monday and are now guaranteed a run following the defections of Chris’s Dream, Highland Hunter and Chatham Street Lad.

The connections of  Domaine De Lisle, Eclair Surf and Fortescue, the next three horses likely to get in if there are any further defections before the 48-hour declaration stage, will be sweating on whether they make the cut or have to take their chance as a reserve.

Emma Lavelle’s De Rasher Counter is already in the race but she admits Eclair Surf, second to Saturday’s runaway Scottish National winner Win My Wings in the Eider Chase, would be one of the form horses in the race if he were to get in.

“I’d like him to make the cut,” she said. “He’d clearly have a reasonable chance after what Win My Wings did on Saturday. It would be a shame and one has slightly mixed emotions when you look at the numbers some yards are running. But each owner has a right to run so that’s fine but it will be a bit frustrating. It’s a very valuable race with a lot of history so you can understand everyone wanting to run.”