Brassil hoping it stays dry for Double Martin Brassil is hoping for no more rain ahead of Double Seven's tilt at the Crabbie's Grand National at Aintree on Saturday. The County Kildare trainer landed the biggest prize in steeplechasing with Numbersixvalverde in 2006, and his challenger this year is the choice of Tony McCoy, who could have also partnered the Ted Walsh-trained Colbert Station. "Everything seems to have gone well with him and we're happy to be here. I just hope they don't get too much rain. The ground is very important to him and if it went heavy there'd be no point in even running him. Hopefully it's no worse than good to soft," said Brassil. "I'm not sure I'd given his jockey a whole lot of thought, I left all that up to the best judge in the business. Tony has ridden him before so it's not as if he is going in blind. The form of his Munster National win was done no harm when Spring Heeled won the Kim Muir, so that was nice to see." Colbert Station unseated in the race 12 months ago, and Walsh said: "Last year he didn't run a good race in it. He was never really travelling and he jumped a bit erratic, this year hopefully he'll take to it a bit better." There were no non-runners at the 9am Friday deadline, which means the four reserves - Goonyella, Soll, Night In Milan and Minella For Value - have been eliminated.
