Tiger Roll given green light for National
Owner says chaser will try to emulate Red Rum Domaine De L’isle can maintain improvement
Tiger Roll, who is due to make his reappearance in the Boyne Hurdle at Navan tomorrow, has been given the green light to run in the Randox Health Grand National and attempt to match the record three wins of Red Rum by his owner Michael O’leary.
The initial reaction of the O’leary brothers, Michael and his racing manager Eddie, was one of disappointment when Tiger Roll was allotted top-weight of 11st 10lb at the publication of the Aintree weights in Liverpool on Tuesday.
They described his rating of 170 as “unfair” and refused to confirm whether he would run in the race.
Contrite is probably not something Michael O’leary does but, after sleeping on it for a couple of nights, his brother confirmed Tiger Roll’s participation yesterday.
Obviously with any horse there is quite a lot of water to pass under the bridge between now and April 4, and the caveat is that the 10-yearold comes through his Navan outing tomorrow and the Glenfarclas Cross Country at the Cheltenham Festival happy and sound. But the Grand National is the target for him.
The two-time National winner’s comeback tomorrow may yet be stymied by the weather, with Storm Dennis expected to impact heavily on this weekend’s racing. All today’s domestic meetings face precautionary inspections with the exception of Newcastle.
“The weather is not very good, but everyone is hoping it will happen,” said Eddie O’leary yesterday, when speaking about Navan. “He only started cantering on Jan 1 and even missed his racecourse gallop a week ago. At this stage, a horse like him needs a run and all we are hoping is that he comes back in afterwards with a smile on his face.
“We sat down on Thursday night to discuss everything and we have decided Tiger Roll will definitely run in the Grand National providing everything goes OK at Navan and Cheltenham.”
Gordon Elliott, his trainer, described it as great news. “He is the horse of a lifetime and now he is the people’s horse, so it was important we made an early decision. There will be people at Navan who would not be going if he were not running.
“He has a massive following and we acknowledge that, but people should not be expecting fireworks on Sunday. He will be ridden out the back and to run well and hopefully pass a few horses. If he does that then it will be job done.”
Cyrname is the headline act in the Betfair Chase at Ascot today. The effects of a hard race against Altior at Ascot earlier in the season told in the King George Chase over Christmas and although he only faces three rivals, he will not want to be too flat with Riders Onthe Storm, an impressive winner of his last two but with a bit to find on the form book, as one of them.
However, Domaine De L’isle (2.25 Ascot), who is improving steadily, is my idea of the best bet of the day. He battled well to win over two miles and five furlongs at the track last month and this step up in trip should help him progress again.