Tiger Roll


Tiger Roll is an Irish-bred Thoroughbred racehorse who competes in National Hunt racing and won the Grand National in 2018 and 2019. He has also won four times at the Cheltenham Festival: the Triumph Hurdle in 2014, the National Hunt Chase Challenge Cup in 2017 and the Glenfarclas Cross Country Chase in 2018 and 2019.
Although bred for the flat, his first race was as a three-year-old gelding over hurdles. After winning this race he was sold to Michael O'Leary's Gigginstown House Stud and put into training at Gordon Elliott’s Cullentra House Stables in County Meath, Ireland, where he has remained ever since.
After success as a four-year-old in the Triumph Hurdle, he had a chequered career over hurdles with just two wins in his next eleven starts, which included one entry in a flat race. His chasing career began when he was six, and, after winning or being placed in several novice chases, he won a handicap at Limerick and then the Grade 2 National Hunt Challenge Cup at Cheltenham in 2017. He achieved fame with victories at Cheltenham and Aintree in 2018 and then again in 2019, when he became the first horse since Red Rum in 1973 and 1974 to win back-to-back Grand Nationals.
He was ridden to victory in both Grand Nationals and the Triumph Hurdle by Davy Russell. Lisa O'Neill and Keith Donoghue rode him in his other Cheltenham victories. Bryan Cooper was his regular jockey until 2016 and he has also been ridden in several races by Jack Kennedy and Donagh Meyler, with Jamie Codd, Davy Condon, Mark Quinlan and R.P. Cleary each having ridden him once. Grooms Louise Magee and Louise Dunn usually lead him in.

Background

Tiger Roll, by 2007 Epsom Derby winner Authorized out of Swiss Roll, was foaled 14 March 2010. He is a bay gelding with a white star and, at 15.2 hands, is small for a racehorse. He was bred in Ireland by Gerry O’Brien and bought as a foal by Godolphin for 70,000 guineas at Tattersalls. He never raced for Godolphin and was sold for £10,000 three years later to Devon trainer and former Grand National winning jockey Nigel Hawke.

2013/2014 season

Tiger Roll's first race was a juvenile hurdle at Market Rasen Racecourse in November 2013. Ridden by Mark Quinlan, he won by 3¾ lengths. Two months later, in January 2014, he was sold for £80,000 to Michael O'Leary's Gigginstown House Stud and put into training at Gordon Elliott’s Cullentra House Stables in County Meath, Ireland. He has remained with the same owner and trainer ever since.
His first race for his new owner and trainer was the Grade 1 Spring Juvenile Hurdle at Leopardstown in February 2014. He was ridden by Bryan Cooper and came second, beaten 2¼ lengths by Guitar Pete.
The following month he made his first appearance at the Cheltenham Festival, competing against 15 other four-year-olds in the Grade 1 Triumph Hurdle. Partnered for the first time with jockey Davy Russell and starting at odds of 10/1, he won by 3¼ lengths with Kentucky Hyden in second place and Guitar Pete in third.
Tiger Roll's last race of the season was in the Champion Four Year Old Hurdle at Punchestown, where he started favourite but came a disappointing seventh.

2014/2015 season

After a summer break, Tiger Roll returned to the racecourse in October for a 2m½f hurdle race for four year olds with a field of four at Cheltenham. Ridden by Bryan Cooper, he narrowly beat the favourite Calipto. Two weeks later he was pulled up lame in the Grade 2 WKD Hurdle at Down Royal.
In the December Festival Hurdle at Leopardstown Tiger Roll was competing for the first time against older horses and came sixth of seventh runners, beaten nineteen lengths by Hurricane Fly. He then finished fourth of six runners 18½ lengths behind Hurricane Fly in the Irish Champion Hurdle in January 2015. The next month he was entered in a Grade 2 hurdle race at Gowran Park and came third of five runners, beaten 18 lengths by Kitten Rock. After these disappointing results, Tiger Roll started at odds of 50/1 in the Stayers' Hurdle over 3 miles at Cheltenham in March. It was the first time he had run over a distance of more than about 2 miles. Ridden for the first, and only, time by Davy Condon he was eased up when beaten approaching the last and finished 13th of 16 runners behind Cole Harden. His final outing of the season, ridden by his regular jockey Bryan Cooper, was in the Punchestown Champion Hurdle over two miles. He finished last of the field of four, 35½ lengths behind winner Faugheen.

2015/2016 and 2016/17 seasons

After a break of nearly eleven months from May 2015 to March 2016, Tiger Roll ran in a 2 mile flat race on the all-weather track at Dundalk Stadium. Ridden by R.P. Cleary, he finished a close second to Sir Raston. It was the only flat race of Tiger Roll's career. In April he was unplaced in a 3m½f hurdle race at Aintree and then pulled up lame in a handicap hurdle at the Punchestown Festival.
It was in May 2016 that Tiger Roll began his chasing career, entering a beginners' chase over 2m1f and 11 fences at Ballinrobe. Partnered by conditional jockey Jack Kennedy, he won by eight lengths. Over the following four months he competed in six novice chases in Ireland, winning one, coming second in three and fourth in one, and unseating Bryan Cooper in one. In October 2016, ridden by conditional jockey Donagh Meyler, he won the Munster National Handicap at Limerick over 3 miles and in a field of fifteen. Later that month he came third in a novice chase at Cheltenham, ridden for the only time by amateur jockey Jamie Codd, and third again in a chase at Wexford.
After a break of over four months, Tiger Roll returned to racing in March at the 2017 Cheltenham Festival with victory in the Grade 2 National Hunt Challenge Cup Amateur Riders' Novices' Chase over 4 miles, ridden for the only time by Lisa O'Neill. His final race of the season was the Irish Grand National at Fairyhouse, in which he was pulled up.

2017/18 season

Tiger Roll's 2017/18 season began with second place in a chase at Wexford. He was then pulled up at Clonmel where he was being ridden for the first time by Keith Donoghue, who would become his regular jockey. In December 2017 Tiger Roll and Keith Donoghue had their first taste of the cross country course at Cheltenham, coming fifth behind stablemate Bless the Wings.
In March 2018, after a break of nearly three months, Tiger Roll returned to Cheltenham and won the Glenfarclas Cross Country Chase, beating Urgent de Gregaine by two lengths.
His third win at the Cheltenham Festival was followed by victory, at his first attempt, in the 2018 Grand National at Aintree. Ridden by Davy Russell and starting at odds of 10/1, he went into the lead two from home and held off a late challenge from Pleasant Company to win by a head in a photo-finish. The win brought his total earnings to almost £802,000. Trainer Gordon Elliott said after the race: "When you look back at his record he’s won three different types of races at the Cheltenham Festival. To come on and win a National is unbelievable. He doesn’t owe us too much now."

2018/19 season

Tiger Roll started the 2018-19 season by coming fourth in a cross country chase at Cheltenham in November 2018. He then surprised everyone by winning his 2019 warm-up race, the Boyne Hurdle race at Navan in February, at odds of 25/1, partnered by his regular jockey Keith Donoghue. In March he started hot favourite for the Glenfarcas Cross Country Chase and duly won by 22 lengths. At Aintree, on 6 April, partnered by Davy Russell and carrying six pounds more than in 2018, he started favourite for the Grand National at odds of 4/1 and won by more than two lengths from Magic of Light. This victory made him the first horse since Red Rum in 1974 to win back-to-back Grand Nationals.
In November 2019 Tiger Roll sustained an injury and underwent surgery to remove a chip from a joint in a leg.

2019/20 season

Tiger Roll's first race of the season, after a break of over ten months, was the Boyne Hurdle in February, in which he came fifth. In March he returned to the Cheltenham Festival to attempt a third successive win in the Glenfarclas Cross Country Chase. Starting as odds-on favourite, he was beaten 17 lengths into second place by Easysland and finished too tired to go into the unsaddling enclosure. After the race, jockey Keith Donoghue said: "He ran his heart out. We were always afraid of the ground and that’s what got him beat. Every time he hit heavy patches, we’d just struggle. When he came back out on to a bit of nice ground, he’d come back on the bridle again. That just told in the end. I thought, going over the last three hedges, I had every chance but the winner was very good on the day and we were beat fair and square."
In the 2020 Virtual Grand National Tiger Roll started 5/1 favourite and came home in fourth place, behind Potters Corner, Walk in the Mill and Any Second Now.