Gordon Elliott still eyeing Grand National three-timer with Tiger Roll in 2021

Gordon Elliott has revealed dual Grand National hero Tiger Roll will be aimed at next year’s race after the coronavirus outbreak forced the cancellation of the three-day meeting at Aintree.

Tiger Roll was a general 8-1 ante-post favourite to become the first horse to seal a hat-trick in the £1 million showpiece, with Red Rum the only three-time National winner with victories in 1973, 1974 and 1977.

Jockey Club Racecourses announced on Monday evening that next month’s meeting will not take place following on from prime minister Boris Johnson informing the general public to ‘avoid non-essential contact and unnecessary travel'.

Grand National meeting cancelled due to coronavirus outbreak

Elliott, who won the race for the first time with Silver Birch in 2007, said: “It's disappointing but everyone at Aintree and involved with it has to do what's right to get everything back on track. We're all on the one team.

"We were going to have a few runners in the race and were really looking forward to it. But from the chairman of Aintree to everyone underneath, they all have to make the right decision, and hopefully we'll be back next year [with Tiger Roll] and one hundred per cent."

Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme on Tuesday morning, Elliott added: “There's every chance of Tiger Roll competing next year. He doesn't have many miles on the clock.

Tiger Roll: has won the last two runnings of the Grand NationalCredit: Edward Whitaker

“We'll be training him back for the Grand National again and I'll be taking it day by day. There's a lot of water to go under the bridge between now and then. We'll be keeping our head up and keeping him going.

"All we can do is dream. You never know what can happen. He's in good form and was all set for the National. But we're only one of 40 horses and we just have to keep going."

Tiger Roll, who will be 11 next year, has run twice this season, finishing fifth in the Boyne Hurdle at Navan and second behind Easysland at the Cheltenham Festival in the Glenfarclas Cross Country Chase, which he had won the two previous years.

Coral are offering 10-1 about Tiger Roll winning next year's National. The firm's spokesman David Stevens said: “Had it gone ahead, this year’s Grand National would have been all about Tiger Roll’s unprecedented hat-trick bid.

"Although that won’t happen now, the Tiger could still get the chance to join Red Rum as a three-time winner in 12 months time, and we’re certainly not writing him off."

Neptune Collonges, Auroras Encore and Pineau De Re won the National at the age of 11 between 2012 and 2014. Amberleigh House was the oldest winner of the race since the turn of the millennium when successful as a 12-year-old in 2004.

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