Grand National 2021: Cloth Cap heads Aintree field as The Storyteller is withdrawn
By Frank KeoghBBC Sport
Cloth Cap is the favourite for Saturday s race
The Storyteller was the only withdrawal as the final field of 40 horses - headed by Cloth Cap - was named for the Grand National on Saturday.
It means Blaklion is the last horse to be guaranteed a run in the big race at Aintree.
Patrick Mullins will ride leading contender Burrows Saint for his trainer father Willie Mullins.
Stable jockey Paul Townend will miss the ride after suffering a foot injury.
Cloth Cap, trained by Jonjo O Neill, is the 4-1 favourite to give owner Trevor Hemmings a record fourth win in his green, yellow and white colours.
Rose Paterson, 64, took own life in woodland in Ellsemere, Shropshire, in June
Her husband and Tory MP Owen Paterson spoke about the day of her death
Explained he was so desperate for it not be suicide, he hoped she was murdered
Believes contracting coronavirus in first lockdown affected her mental health
He and his three children launching a suicide prevention charity in her honour
Owen Paterson on the agony of his wife s suicide: It s horrifying to think she was suffering so badly without us knowing
The MP for North Shropshire has spoken candidly about Rose’s suicide in the hope that it will help others
29 January 2021 • 9:52pm If I can help stop just one family from experiencing the utter agony we have gone through, then I will have done something worthwhile, said the former Northern Ireland secretary
Credit: Eddie Mulholland for The Telegraph
When the police told Owen Paterson his wife Rose had been found dead in the woods of their Shropshire home, his last desperate hope was that she had been murdered.