Tiger Roll

Tiger Roll was once the property of Sheikh Mohammed and, while he never raced for that esteemed owner, it was in a slightly different set of maroon and white silks – those of Gigginstown House Stud owner, Michael O’Leary – that he made his name. Having made a winning debut for Devon trainer Nigel Hawke in juvenile hurdle at Market Rasen in November, 2013, Tiger Roll was bought by O’Leary and sent to Co. Meath trainer Gordon Elliott, with a view to winning the Fred Winter Juvenile Handicap Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival. Two starts later, he won the Grade One Triumph Hurdle, under Davy Russell – with whom he would be famously reunited later in his career – and, despite struggling to make much impression in conditions hurdle races thereafter, also won the National Hunt Challenge Cup at the Cheltenham Festival in 2016.

 

Notwithstanding those two, high-profile victories, Tiger Roll has become a household name by winning the Grand National two years running in 2018 and 2019 – making him the first horse to do so since Red Rum in 1973 and 1974 – both times under Davy Russell. Even before his second Aintree victory, though, Tiger Roll had become a Cheltenham Festival phenomenon, winning the Glenfarclas Country Chase – to take his Festival tally to four races in two different disciplines, over three different distances, in the space of six seasons – in 2018 and 2019.

 

Once described as a ‘little rat of a thing’ by his owner, Tiger Roll has now won five of his last six starts, including a surprise win, at 25/1 win, over hurdles at Navan in February, 2019 and, while still only a nine-year-old, is unlikely to attempt a Grand National hat-trick. Tiger Roll is 8/1 favourite to win the Aintree marathon for the third year running, but Michael O’Leary has said that he is ‘duty-bound to mind’ his charge and is more inclined to make the Glenfarclas Cross Country Chase his main target for the 2019/20 season, followed by an honourable retirement.

Frankel

Bred and owned by Juddmonte Farms, under the auspices of Prince Khalid Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, and trained by the late Sir Henry Cecil, Frankel was the highest-rated horse in the history of Timeform. In 2012, as a four-year-old, Frankel was awarded a provisional Timeform rating of 147 when winning the Queen Anne Stakes at Ascot and the Juddmonte International Stakes at York; his Timeform Annual Rating was confirmed in January, 2013, making him the highest-rated horse – 2lb superior to his nearest rival, 1965 Derby winner Sea-Bird – since Timeform published ‘Racehorses of 1948’ in 1949.

 

Sired by the 2001 Derby winner Galileo, Frankel was named after the late Robert J. ‘Bobby’ Frankel, one of the most successful American trainers of the last fifty years. He made his racecourse debut in a maiden stakes race at Newmarket in July, 2010, winning readily by half-a-length and so embarked upon a career that would see him hailed as, arguably, the best horse in the history of thoroughbred racing.

 

Frankel won the first of his ten Group One races in the Dewhurst Stakes at Newmarket on his fourth, and final, start as a juvenile, comfortably beating subsequent Criterium International winner Roderic O’Connor by two-and-a-quarter lengths. The following season, having won his preparatory race, the Greenham Stakes at Newbury, by 7 lengths, he was sent off the shortest-priced favourite for the 2,000 Guineas since Apalachee in 1974. Drawn in stall one, on the opposite extreme from his supposed pacemaker, Rerouted, Frankel quickly established a clear lead, which he never relinquished, and passed the post six lengths ahead of his nearest pursuer, Dubawi Gold.

 

Having put up what was described by one observer as ‘one of the greatest displays on a British racecourse’ – which was greeted by cheering and applause from the knowledgeable crowd fully two furlongs from home – Frankel went on to win another eight races, all at Group One level, to finish his career unbeaten after 14 starts. According to Timeform, he was the best of his generation at two, three and four years, he was named Cartier Two-Year-Old Colt and Cartier Horse of the Year (twice) and, on his retirement from racing in October, 2012, had won nearly £3 million in prize money.

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