National hero Tiger Roll will not get special treatment in bid to match Red Rum

There will be no special treatment from the handicapper to tempt connections of Tiger Roll to aim for a third Grand National and emulate the legendary Red Rum.

Owner Michael O'Leary has warned Tiger Roll is far from certain to bid for an Aintree hat-trick next April as he does not want to overface him, and racing manager Eddie O'Leary said last week: "If he's off 165 he'll run, but if he's off 166 he won't be running."

However, BHA chase handicapper Martin Greenwood, who has the discretion to set his own weights in the National rather than relying on official ratings, has suggested Tiger Roll will be allotted a higher rating than the one sought by connections.

"As always, I'll treat every horse as I see fit when the entries are made in January," he said. "They want him 165 or under, he's currently rated 172 and an awful lot of things are going to have to alter markedly for those to converge.

"He won off 159 last year in really good style. He'd been due to go up to 167 at the time, the third and fifth were also both due to go up 8lb, so it was good form. It was one of the best performances in the National in modern times."

Eddie O'Leary argued for the handicap to be compressed, a practice introduced by Greenwood's predecessor Phil Smith, in order to allow Tiger Roll to run.

Greenwood said: "Last year I dropped Bristol De Mai to keep horses in the handicap at the bottom, but where Tiger Roll is different is that he runs in handicaps and he has the Aintree factor – he's won the National twice, which means that if anything his rating is increased round there.

"Wherever possible, why would any handicapper want any horse on a rating he doesn't think is correct?"

Tiger Roll won off 10st 13lb (a BHA mark of 150) in 2018 and 11st 5lb (159) this year and would be attempting to match the three wins of Red Rum, who defied top weight in his last two victories.

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