Following the defection of First Gold at today's final declaration stage, the weights for the Martell Cognac Grand National will go up 3lb to leave Le Coudray at the top of the handicap for Saturday's race.
Le Coudray, one of four runners for J P McManus, will carry 11st 12lb in the Aintree showpiece, just 2lb above last year's winner Monty's Pass, who carried 10st 7lb to an impressive victory 12 months ago.
The other McManus runners are leading fancy Clan Royal, Risk Accessor, trained like Le Coudray by Christy Roche, and Spot Thedifference.
Clan Royal's handler Jonjo O'Neill will also be represented by Joss Naylor, who has not been seen out since finishing second to Strong Flow in the Hennessy Cognac Gold Cup at Newbury in November.
Martin Pipe, who won the race in 1994 with Miinnehoma, originally had six runners - Puntal, Jurancon II, Akarus, Bounce Back, Lord Atterbury and Blowing Wind.
But following the news that Silver Streak is to miss the race, Montreal steps in as first reserve to bolster the champion trainer's squad.
Willie Mullins has been pleased with the preparation of his two challengers, long-time ante-post favourite Hedgehunter and Alexander Banquet.
He said: "They are both OK. Their preparation has been very good and I'm delighted with them.
We'd like about four inches of rain for them but we're not going to get it. Both of them have won on goodish ground and I'd be more concerned about a clear passage through the race than ground."
Apart from the expected withdrawal of Timbera, all the leading fancies stood their ground in the £600,000 contest, which has a safety limit of 40 with four reserves.
As well as First Gold and Timbera, the other withdrawals were Wahiba Sands, Whereareyounow, Hermes III, Royal Predica, Simply Gifted, Iznogoud, Maximize, Ballybrophy, Mr Bossman, Moor Lane, Lord Jack, King On The Run and Kings Mistral.
The going on the Grand National course is currently described as good.