Tiger Roll

Delta Work and Jack Kennedy defeated Tiger Roll in the legendary horse's final race at Cheltenham Festival on Wednesday before the two-time Grand National ...

He added: “He’s been the horse of a lifetime and in many ways Cheltenham has been his spiritual home. He’s gone out on his shield, he’s a warrior and that’s a Gold Cup horse that has beat him and only just on ground he wouldn’t like. “I really would have loved to see Tiger go out on a win,” an emotional O’Leary said. Regardless, both Delta Work and Tiger Roll emerged in the winners’ enclosure together to rapturous applause. I suppose it was in my head that he might not get up the hill as well as my lad on that ground.” There were boos from the crowd as Delta Work took the win, but Kennedy was sympathetic as he understood the occasion.

He retires to a stable with butler service and a concierge surely, but they couldn't quite give Tiger Roll the denouement he deserved.

“You know, this is the place we all want to be,” he reflected. Tiger Roll. Nudged out in the final stride of an epic, ten-year journey. I made a mistake and I apologised – and it’s onwards and upwards.” Probably his greatest training ally in the sport – his old boss, Martin Pipe – was the son of a West Country bookie, an outsider in other words. To train a winner for Gigginstown is extra-special. By the end of it, the jockeys were just grey shadows of what they’d been at the start, mud-splattered ghosts. The Gigginstown horses returned to the enclosure side by side, the roars unequivocally for the one that finished second. Elliott said he would run only because the people wanted to see him. “Today is Tiger’s day!” Elliott declared gently. “It would just have been a fairytale!” admitted an unusually equivocal Michael O’Leary. “No, none,” he declared emphatically. “Doesn’t bother me at all, to be honest with you.

Delta Work won the Glenfarclas Chase from stablemate Tiger Roll, as the latter just failed to end his career in a blaze of glory.

"He’s been the horse of a lifetime and in many ways Cheltenham has been his spiritual home. I suppose it was in my head that he might not get up the hill as well as my lad on that ground. I thought the ground would be gone for him (Tiger Roll), I was surprised with how well he was going. "I thought I was always going to get there. But Delta Work, on his first try over the cross-country fences, was always close enough under Jack Kennedy, and slowly, with every stride, inched closer and eventually put his head in front 200 yards from the line to go score by three-quarters of a length. The fairytale ending was not to be.

Tiger Roll could not sign off his fabulous career with victory in the Cross Country Chase at Cheltenham, but went out with a gallant second-place finish ...

No longer would Tiger Roll be just another horse. The following year would clearly be built around going back to Merseyside and the signs were ominous for the rest when he had his prep for the Glenfarclas Chase in the Boyne Hurdle – and won at 25-1. Then it was on to Aintree where, as a three-time Festival winner already, he was among the favourites at 10-1 but the heavy ground was not supposed to be in his favour. The following season Elliott had two races in mind, the Cross Country Chase at the Festival and the National and given he had been beaten at Cheltenham’s November meeting, he was a relatively easy to back 7-1 chance when he pulled off the first objective. Two outings later he was a Cheltenham Festival winner once more in the National Hunt Chase when it was still over four miles, ridden by Lisa O’Neill, proving once and for all that stamina really was his forte. While he did return to Cheltenham for his first run the following season and left successful, a spell in the doldrums followed and like several Triumph winners before him, he appeared to have completely lost his way.

Stablemate Delta Work reels in Davy Russell and Tiger Roll near the line but Cheltenham crowds rise to salute "a warrior"

He added: “He's been the horse of a lifetime and in many ways Cheltenham has been his spiritual home. “He is a great horse and he has got a fitting send-off so it’s great,” Russell said. He's gone out on his shield, he's a warrior and that's a Gold Cup horse that has beat him and only just on ground he wouldn't like. I actually expected to pick him up a bit easier, but my lad just ground him down in the end.” “It's just a magical fairytale on ground that doesn't suit him. “A lot of people don’t like me now after that but it doesn’t really bother me to be honest,” Kennedy, the pantomime villain, said.