Nicholls waiting on Conti's weight Paul Nicholls is keen to see what weight Silviniaco Conti is given before he commits to a run in the Crabbie's Grand National at Aintree. The six-times Grade One winner has not been seen since he was pulled up in his quest to land a third consecutive King George at Kempton on Boxing Day and featured amongst 126 entries for the great race on April 9. But Nicholls told the Daily Mirror: "I want to see if the weights tempt us to run. "I'm not saying 'yes' and I'm not saying 'no' - we need to look at the weights and make a plan. "Phil Smith (British Horseracing Authority head of handicapping) has always helped some of those horses and given them a better mark in the National, so it depends on how well we are treated and what weight he's got." Silviniaco Conti is one of Sky Bet's co-second-favourites at 25/1 for the Grand National, with Many Clouds a well-backed market-leader to win the race for the second year running at 11/1. His trainer Oliver Sherwood told At The Races on Thursday morning: "He did lose a shoe and was a little bit sore on Sunday morning after his race at Cheltenham but it was of no consequence and the plan is still to go to Kelso for his prep-race for Aintree next month. He had a little hack yesterday and he's absolutely fine. "I believe Ballabriggs got beaten in the same race for Mr Hemmings before he went on to win the National. We'd like to win it ideally! The alternative is the Gold Cup but there are only three weeks between that race and Aintree this year and the extra week does make a hell of a difference - it does to Many Clouds anyway, as he prefers a longer gap between his races."
