It might seem unthinkable that the winner of the Triumph Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival in 2014 could go on to win a Grand National, but let us not forget that three-time winner and the horse that is pretty much synonymous with the race, Red Rum, started off running on the flat as a sprinter over five furlongs!
Tiger Roll's trainer Gordon Elliott is looking for a second win in the race. The 2007 win of Silver Birch under his guidance put Elliott on the map and now he is one of National Hunt racing's powerhouses, a genius who trained a record equalling eight winners at the Cheltenham Festival just a month ago.
Tiger Roll was one of those winners. The diminutive eight year old made it a third Festival win when landing the Cross Country in terrific style on the Wednesday of the meeting. Despite starting off his career as a speed horse in the Triumph Hurdle as a juvenile, there's no doubting Tiger Roll's stamina, having won the four-miler at Cheltenham just over a year ago before the Cross Country win last month which is raced over three miles and six furlongs.
Irish Champion Jockey in-waiting Davy Russell teams up with the horse but he hasn't faired as well at Aintree, in particular the Grand National. Russell has had 13 attempts to land the big one with a best finish of third in last year's race aboard Saint Are (who runs again in 2018), completing the course eight out of 13.
The Grand National will come as a welcome distraction to Elliott who is going head to head with Willie Mullins for the Trainer Championship back in Ireland for a second successive year. Pipped to the post by Mullins a year ago, Elliott holds a half a million euro lead over his rival and it'll be back to business for the pair tomorrow in Ireland.
Plenty will be keen to back the eight year old, who is a general 14/1 shot with the bookmakers at the time of writing. He may well go off favourite although the ground would be a concern. The horse's best form has come on sounder surfaces that he'll get on Saturday and Elliott has stated that anything with heavy in the description would be a negative.
His jumping is also questionable. He's quick at his jumps but he's a small horse and doesn't like to give them too much air. The 'Aintree fence' was omitted from the Cross Country at Cheltenham last month but when the horse attempted it in a trial earlier in the season he absolutely clouted it.
So long as he does handle the fences, he's sure to give backers a run for their money. In fact, ITV aired their 'Virtual Grand National' on Friday night which takes into account all manner of mathematical algorithms to play out the race as they see happening and Tiger Roll came off the pace to win the race. The more cynical of punter won't take too much from this, although it did throw up six of the top ten finishers in last year's race. Coincidence or genius?
Speaking of geniuses, both Gordon Elliott and Davy Russell would be well deserved of a Grand National winner, as would the horse.
Now a three-time Cheltenham Festival winner.
Fantastic training performance from @gelliott_racing👏
