O'Learys were hardly going to back down over Tiger Roll but it's all just noise

Almost lost amid the inevitable brouhaha that followed the Randox Health Grand National weights was the revelation Tiger Roll would be staying in training next season.

If nothing else, that serves as a reminder that Michael O’Leary’s volatile inclinations continue to endure. The jump racing sector has only a couple of benefactors who put as much into the game and the Ryanair chief’s mammoth Gigginstown House Stud firm looks like it is on the way out. Still, as we’ve also seen during his long and complex relationship with Davy Russell, O'Leary is not averse to changing his mind so we’ll keep watching that particular space.

When speaking to the Racing Post in November, O’Leary gave a pretty strong indication he would seriously consider retiring Tiger Roll if he won the cross-country race at Cheltenham in March. Thankfully, that prospect has now abated, which you would hope would suggest the mindset that determined the brilliant ten-year-old be campaigned with undue caution has also relented.