Owners: Oydunow Syndicate – consisting of trainer Michael Scudamore plus the three rugby players:
Mike Tindall, 35 – Grew up in Wakefield, had trials for English schoolboy athletics team as a high jumper. Turned down chance to read psychology at Durham University to play rugby for Bath. Won 2003 World Cup with England. Former captain, 75 caps, currently centre for Gloucester.
James Simpson-Daniel, 31 – Attended Sedbergh School in Cumbria that produced fellow England players Will Carling and Will Greenwood. Nicknamed ‘Sinbad’ after Brookside TV character, has spent club career mainly as winger for Gloucester.
Nicky Robinson, 32 – Fly-half, born in Cardiff. Has played 13 times for Wales. Now with Bristol following spells at Cardiff, Gloucester and London Wasps. Married to Lynsey, the daughter of Liverpool football legend Kenny Dalglish.
Trainer: Michael Scudamore, 30, trains just 15 horses with only two staff to help him and his girlfriend at his stables near Ross-on-Wye in Herefordshire. He is the son of eight-time champion jump jockey Peter, and grandson of Michael senior, who rode Oxo to victory in the 1959 Grand National.
Jockey: There have been 10 of them altogether, including Michael’s brother Tom, but Irish rider Paul Carberry, 40, has the nod for Aintree. Carberry is a character, famed for his patient riding style, who swung from the Aintree rafters in the old winner’s enclosure when winning the race 15 years ago on Bobbyjo, trained by his father Tommy. Theirs is a family where breeding counts – Tommy also rode a National winner, L’Escargot, in 1975.