Despite the much voiced frustration of Mouse Morris when the weights for the 2010 Grand National were declared on Feb 16th, the prolific trainer has not yet removed his only entry, War of Attrition, from the big race.

The deadline for the first official scratchings for the race was on march 2nd and it transpired that War of Attrition was not withdrawn which came as a surprise to many including the bookmakers who had previously removed him from their ante-post odds offerings.

With War still in contention it left 98 still in the running as 13 were withdrawn including Irish Invader, Beroni, One Cool Cookie, Kilcrea Castle, Darkness, Siegemaster and Taranis, who was reported lame on Wednesday. There were no real shocks and very little has changed ante-post as all of the favourites are still on to run the race on Saturday April 10th.

The next date for scratchings is March 22nd at which time Morris will have had longer to consider what is best for War of Attrition and despite his allocated weight of 11-01 he may still be in with a very good chance on the day. Paddy Power currently have him at odds of 16/1 putting him as eighth favourite to win so maybe it’s worth the gamble to keep him in!