Tiger Roll’s career in doubt after lifeless performance

The racing career of Tiger Roll, the Grand National winner in 2018 and 2019, is shrouded in doubt after an uncharacteristically lifeless display in the Glenfarclas Cross-Country Chase here on Friday, which prompted Robbie Power to pull up on the 10-year-old with more than a mile still to run.

Tiger Roll was giving lumps of weight to most of his rivals and running over jumps for the first time since March, but his performance was clearly still a long way below expectations, not least after his run on the Flat in Ireland last month to set him up for Friday’s race.

“He was never travelling,” Power, who was riding Tiger Roll for the first time, reported afterwards. “He never had a cut at his fences. I pulled him up because he was never in a rhythm.”

Tiger Roll was 4-1 favourite with Ladbrokes for the Grand National next April before Friday’s race, but was taken out of the firm’s betting entirely afterwards as Eddie O’Leary, racing manager to the gelding’s owner, Michael O’Leary, admitted that a similar display next time would almost certainly see Tiger Roll retired.

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Hard seasons

“It’s obviously disappointing but maybe age is catching up with him,” O’Leary said. “Generally, you’d like to give him a run over hurdles [next] to put a smile on his face, but that was a very poor run today. I hope Gordon [Elliott, his trainer] can put a smile on his face, he’s done it before, but if he ran like that again, you’d be pulling up stumps.”

Elliott sounded equally despondent after Friday’s race, for which his gelding set off as the 4-1 second-favourite.

“He’s not getting any younger and he’s had a hard couple of seasons,” Elliott said, “so we’ll have to all have a talk and see what we do now going forward”.

“He’s been in good form at home, but he never travelled a yard today and the writing was on the wall after two or three fences, to be honest.

“Obviously, the dream would be to go back and win another Grand National, but he was very disappointing today. I’ll have to talk to Michael and Eddie and the whole team to see what we’ll do, but the ground was perfect, everything was right, there was no excuse.”

Friday’s race was a handicap and Tiger Roll was carrying top weight of 11st 12lb, 4lb more than Easysland, who beat him by 17 lengths off level weights over the same course and distance in March. He was also giving at least 20lb to the remainder of the field, including Kingswell Theatre, the eventual winner, and Potters Corner, who took the Welsh National in December.

As a two-time winner of the Grand National, Tiger Roll is certain to carry plenty of weight at Aintree should he line up there next April, but O’Leary – a regular critic of the gelding’s current handicap mark – took the opportunity to appeal for a re-appraisal of Tiger Roll’s rating.

Career on hold

“They’ll have to review it,” O’Leary said. “It will have to be readjusted, it’s crazy and it always has been crazy, but now it’s completely crazy.”

The pattern of recent seasons has seen Tiger Roll run in the Boyne Hurdle at Navan in mid-February before going to the Cross-Country Chase at the Festival and then aiming towards Aintree. For the moment, though, his racing career is on hold.

“He usually gets warm beforehand but he definitely got warmer than normal, so maybe he was feeling something or he picked up a bit of a chill going over,” Elliott said. “We’ll just have to get him home now to see if he’s okay.”