Tiger Roll denied victory in final strides on farewell performance at Cheltenham

The extraordinary career of Tiger Roll concluded in suitably remarkable circumstances here on Wednesday, as the winner of five Festival races and two Grand Nationals was denied a swansong success just a few strides from the line, by a stablemate in the same colours of Ryanair’s chief executive, Michael O’Leary.

Tiger Roll and Davy Russell, his partner for so many big-race wins, had a narrow lead over the last in the Cross Country Chase, a race he won three times in the last four years. He was still in front with less than half a furlong to run, but was overhauled by Delta Work, the 5-2 favourite, within sight of the post, finishing second by three-quarters of a length.

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The result brought a loud chorus of boos from the packed grandstands, an unprecedented greeting for a winning favourite at the Festival meeting but seemingly borne of frustration rather than any ill will towards the winner.

“It’s understandable,” Jack Kennedy, Delta Work’s jockey, said. “Obviously everybody would have loved to see Tiger Roll win, but you can’t take away from my horse either. I thought I was always going to get there [and] I knew I could be the most hated man in Cheltenham on Wednesday evening if I won.”

Tiger Roll would have equalled Quevega’s all-time record of six Festival successes with a final win, but still retires with a unique record of five wins at the meeting in three different races – the Triumph Hurdle, the National Hunt Chase and the Cross Country Chase – in addition to being the first horse since Red Rum in the 1970s to win two Grand Nationals.

“Of course, I wanted Tiger to win,” Gordon Elliott, the trainer of both Tiger Roll and Delta Work, said