JOHN SMITH'S GRAND NATIONAL, Aintree: Saturday 4 April, 1615 BST
Coverage: Full TV coverage from Aintree on Thursday and Friday on BBC2 and online from 1345, and on Saturday from 1300. Saturday - radio coverage on BBC Radio 5 Live and live text commentary on BBC Sport website & mobiles

By Cornelius Lysaght BBC racing correspondent

The latest news on Saturday's Grand National is that quite a gamble has developed on Irish-trained Hear The Echo, the mount of jockey Davy Russell.

This gelding wears the silks of no-frills airline boss Michael O'Leary - though supporters are perhaps overlooking the fact that horses required to carry more than 11 stone in the handicap (he's on 11st 5lbs) rarely win.

The stats say that a torrent of money for Parson's Legacy (10st 12lbs) is probably more realistic.

When jockey Tom Scudamore gets the leg-up on Battlecry, he will attempt to emulate his grandfather Michael who won the race on Oxo exactly half a century ago. In between Tom's father Peter turned out to be one of the many champion jockeys never to land jump racing's best-known prize.

There are plenty of horses with chances in this year's Aintree classic

Michael, now 76, rode in sixteen successive Grand Nationals during the 1950s and 60s, while Battlecry, trained by Nigel Twiston-Davies, represents Tom's ninth mount in a row. Long highly rated, the horse has not entirely lived up to expectations, but still might.

Last year's winner Comply Or Die and Silver Birch, successful in 2007, have both stood their ground with the field whittled down to 73 on Monday - but remember only 40 can start.

Comply Or Die, again the mount of Timmy Murphy as he attempts to become the first horse since Red Rum to win back-to-back Nationals, was disappointing early in the season. But he ran with much more zest at the Cheltenham Festival in March.

Irish-trained Silver Birch was forced to have a period on the injury list but successfully returned to action in a point-to-point in February, and has since run reasonably well in races whose distance was too short.

Now the legendary trainer Ginger McCain - he of Red Rum and Amberleigh House fame - has retired, it's his son Donald who runs the show at the family's Cheshire stables. Sadly, the indicators are not great for McCain's Cloudy Lane, the sixth home last year: not only is the horse required to carry the most weight, but he surprisingly fell in his most recent race. The stable also saddles Idle Talk (14th last year).

606: DEBATE I am leaning towards Maljimar after his impressive run at Cheltenham when he just failed to get up fatblokeinblue

Grand National winners including West Tip (1986) and Hedgehunter (2005) had fallen during previous experiences of the famous Aintree fences, and similarly Butler's Cabin, Knowhere and L'Ami are amongst those hoping things go a little better than last year.

Butler's Cabin still held a big chance when he and Tony McCoy came down at Bechers Brook on the second circuit, and Knowhere was also in with a major shout when parting company with his rider shortly afterwards. L'Ami (10th behind Silver Birch in 2007) fell at the second fence in what turned out to be jockey Mick Fitzgerald's final race.

Black Apalachi, another member of the large Irish-trained contingent, impressively defeated his rivals in the Becher Chase staged back in November at Aintree. The horse, an early faller in last year's National, was near foot perfect in November, and gave a repeat performance at Fairyhouse in February when beating last year's Aintree third Snowy Morning.

Champion trainer Paul Nicholls has won almost everything worth winning, except the Aintree showpiece in which his best finishing position came with 2005 runner-up Royal Auclair.

Surprise 2007 winner Silver Birch is back for another tilt at the prize

Cheltenham Gold Cup fifth My Will will be partnered by double National winner Ruby Walsh andheads a strong challenge from Nicholls' HQ in Somerset. The Ditcheat team also enter a horse named after a greyhound - Big Fella Thanks - plus Eurotrek and Cornish Sett (last year's 12th).

No horse trained in Wales has won the Grand National for over a century, but State Of Play, prepared in the Vale of Glamorgan by Evan Williams, is an interesting contender. He has run in some of jump racing's top prizes, but Williams has long thought the Aintree feature might be an ideal target.

Trainer Nicky Henderson and his new number one jockey Barry Geraghty (himself the winning rider on Monty's Pass in 2003) have enjoyed a spectacularly successful jockey and they have perhaps the darkest dark horse in the field, Golden Flight. The Henderson team was satisfied with the ex-French horse's first run in Britain at the Cheltenham Festival in March, and there's a chance his long odds are quite generous.

Famously, champion jockey Tony McCoy has never been closer than third place in 13 attempts, but success - perhaps on Butler's Cabin or L'Ami - would propel him to unprecedented household name status.

In 1999 the Carberrys (trainer Tommy and jockey son Paul) carried off the prize with Bobbyjo. A year later the Walshes (Ted and Ruby) did the same with Papillon.

Now, the Reveley duo from north-east England (Keith and James) seek to do the same with Rambling Minster. Their horse has won his last two, and is considered by many to be particularly well weighted.

E-mail this to a friend

Printable version