Use of English PRO

A modern-day record of 144 horses has (0) BEEN entered for the Grand National at Aintree (1) ............ April, when the total prize will be £500,000. This amount is £150,000 (2) ............ than that for the season's other prestigious race, the Cheltenham Gold Cup. The (3) ............ highest number of entries for the National was 141 in 1984, but while that figure had endured for decades, a new record was only a matter of (4) ............ It is not merely the quantity of the contestants (5) ............ has improved in recent years. Changes to the course (6) ............ a number of very public equine fatalities in the late 1980s and early 1990s (7) ............ encouraged owners to participate, and the quality of the field (8) ............ improved significantly.