Trainer Gordon Elliott has confirmed Tiger Roll will be targeted at a third Randox Health Grand National in 2020.
Tiger Roll became the first horse to win back-to-back Grand Nationals since Red Rum in April, but connections had claimed a third bid was unlikely.
However, Elliott has now spoken to the owners and his team, and he is confident the nine-year-old will be heading to Aintree on April 4 for the £1million race.
He said: “It’s great to see him back, doing a bit of work again. He has had a nice couple of months of summer holidays. He will probably do three or four weeks of Flat work before he comes back to us in the main yard here.
“Obviously he won’t be that busy this year. We are going to have to mind him now and pick and choose where we go. He will probably have one run over hurdles, maybe something like the Boyne Hurdle [Navan, February] again. He will go back to Cheltenham [March] for the cross-country race, and then we’ll go for the Grand National.
“I think the build-up to the English National this season is going to be unbelievable. The hype ? people are talking about him already. Whether he wins, loses or draws if he gets back there to have a go at three in a row it’s going to be great. The hype is going to be brilliant.”
Elliott was also candid when asked whether he had been tempted to run Tiger Roll in one of the top G1 races of the Jumps calendar.
He said: “People tell me I should be entering him in Stayers’ Hurdles or Gold Cups but I was always taught and I am a big believer in going for the race you think you can win at the Cheltenham Festival and the race I think I can win at the Cheltenham Festival is the Cross Country race, so that’s where he will go. But the number one target this year will be the English National.”
Tiger Roll’s second Randox Health Grand National win in April this year sparked huge interest around Britain and Ireland in the horse, along with a number of public appearances in the weeks which followed.
Elliott admits that he only realised how much his stable superstar meant to people after the race when reading headlines and meeting people.
He explained: “You don’t really realise how much the horse meant to everyone. You see all the kids and all the different people who came to the yard.
“You don’t really appreciate it when you are in the bubble yourself. You don’t realise how much of a thing there is about this horse, you know? It’s only after when you sit back and you watch the videos and read all the paper clippings, people have really got to like him.
“You know, he has got a great name, Tiger Roll, and he’s got a great heart. He has obviously won at four Cheltenham Festivals and to win two Randox Health Grand Nationals has been unbelievable.
“Everyone who comes into the yard, there’s only one horse they want to see and that is Tiger Roll. He’s a people’s horse now and we are very lucky to have him.
“Red Rum was before my time but you’ve seen the videos and heard all about him. He was an amazing horse and to be in the same league as him is unbelievable.”
