Tiger Roll will aim to emulate the legendary Red Rum as a three-time winner of the Aintree Grand National next April, provided Gordon Elliott’s popular chaser is not shouldered with a hefty burden in the world’s most famous steeplechase.
The two-time National hero will be 12 by the time the Aintree showpiece rolls around and Eddie O’Leary, racing manager for his brother Michael’s Gigginstown House Stud, has opened his war of words with the British handicapping system once again.
Tiger Roll was controversially omitted from this year’s Grand National over an ongoing dispute around his British rating and O’Leary has pleaded for leniency ahead of his possible reappearance in a handicap chase at Cheltenham on Sunday.
“The longer-term plan would be the cross-country at the Cheltenham Festival, all being well, and if he’s given a chance, hopefully the (Grand) National. But he has to be given a chance,” O’Leary told the Telegraph.
“None of us want this bulls*** all year with the handicapper. The horse is rated 155 in Ireland and he’s stuck on 167 in England, which is ridiculous. The Irish handicapper has dropped him seven pounds since his win at Cheltenham (in March 2021).
“But the English handicapper will not drop this horse. Obviously he has something against us or the horse. At some point he’s going to have to drop him. Does he want to wait until the horse is 17?”
Meanwhile, this year’s Irish National hero Freewheelin Dylan will tackle the unique demands of the Cheltenham cross-country fences on Friday as Dermot McLoughlin plots a similar route to Aintree for the nine-year-old. “He runs in the cross-country at Cheltenham on Friday. He seems well and has taken the jumping well. It’s a different discipline altogether and he wouldn’t want to be carrying top-weight in staying chases over the winter. We’ll try to save him for Liverpool next April,” McLoughlin said.
Elsewhere, Jason The Militant has suffered a setback that may leave him on the sidelines until next spring with Henry de Bromhead’s dual-purpose seven-year-old picking up a stress fracture in a recent Flat win.