Minella Times faces a weighty task as he bids for back-to-back Aintree Grand National wins

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 was formerly trained by Phil Kirby at Catterick, 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.

Ben Pauling is looking forward to saddling Kildisart, who won the handicap chase that precedes the Grand National three years ago.

The 10-year-old was sidelined for 16 months before finishing fourth in last month’s Greatwood Gold Cup at Newbury and his trainer believes that run has left him cherry-ripe for the big day.

Pauling said: “He remains in good form and we’ve been very happy with his preparation.

“We’ve had no setbacks so far, touch wood, and we’re just looking forward to hopefully getting there.

“I do think he’s improved a lot since Newbury and hopefully he can show his well being on Saturday.’’

Kildisart is one of a handful of horses the trainer plans to run during

Aintree’s three-day meeting, with his Cheltenham Festival winner Global Citizen poised for Thursday’s Red Rum Handicap Chase.

He added: “Global Citizen will go on Thursday and I’m looking forward to running a nice horse called Bowtogreatness in the three-mile novice hurdle (Sefton Novices’ Hurdle) on Friday.

“We have a couple more for handicaps, including Severance in the conditional jockeys’ race.’’

Hambleton trainer Kevin Ryan will keep options open for the promising Dark Moon Rising after his impressive Chelmsford success.

The colt began his season in the Woodford Reserve Cardinal Conditions Stakes on Wednesday evening, a one-mile contest worth over £50,000 to the winner.

The race was also a part of the Road To The Kentucky Derby series, an initiative where the field for the famous race is determined by a leaderboard system wherein horses collect points in selected events across Europe, Japan and America.

The 30 points on offer to the Chelmsford winner went the way of Ryan’s colt, who triumphed by a length and a quarter to defeat Andrew Balding’s Harrow.

An entry for the Dante at York - the famous Epsom Derby trial has been made for the son of Night Of Thunder, but Ryan has no confirmed next steps in mind yet.

“He’s fine and he’s come out of the race really well, we haven’t decided where we’re going to go yet, he said.

“He’s a very good horse, it was a good race and there was enough quality in there.

“We’ve always thought a lot of this horse, he’s one we’ve always held in very high regard.

“We’ve loads of options with him now, we’ll decide which to take nearer to the time.’’