Tiger’s ready to roll
CAN Tiger Roll become the first back-to-back winner of the Grand National since the mighty Red Rum in 197374?
‘Yes, he can’ is the view of official BHA handicapper Martin Greenwood.
Greenwood says: “He’s an unexposed eight-year-old and I can’t see why he cannot do it again. I have him currently rated on 159.
“He ran very close to that mark in the cross-country race at Cheltenham a few weeks ago and according to his trainer (Gordon Elliott) he runs in the Cross Country
Chase at the Cheltenham Festival again.
“And when the weights close in February for the National, I expect him to be on 159, so he will be 11lb higher than last year.” Elliott, seeking a third victory in the Randox Health-sponsored race, having also taken the prize with Silver Birch in 2007, was not getting carried away about the gelding completing the double. “I probably did not appreciate it the first time when I won the National,” said Elliott yesterday at his stables in Summerhill, Co Meath. “But it was very special to win it last year as Tiger Roll has now become the people’s horse.
“Of course, you are always hoping he can do it again. He’s a very special horse and if you look at him, he’s not the most impressive to look at, and he’s probably the smallest horse we have out with the string this morning.
“But he wears his heart on his sleeve every day.
“Listen, if I’m going to be perfectly honest, it will be a massive ask for him to come back and do it again.
“He’s going to have close to top weight, but he has to have a good, sporting each-way chance.”
He might be able to jump and run, but owner Michael O’Leary thinks, like Elliott, that Tiger Roll isn’t much to look at. In fact, he has described his Aintree hero as “a rat of a thing”.
“It would be great if he can win at the Cheltenham Festival for a fourth time,” said Elliott about the gelding who landed the 2014 Triumph Hurdle, 2017 National Hunt Chase and last year’s Cross Country Chase.
Tiger Roll, who is expected to run at Cheltenham next week, is currently 25-1 with William Hill for the Aintree marathon on April 6.