I Wouldn’t Bet Against Three-In-A-Row For Tiger Roll

It was a fantastic week at the Aintree Festival, where I was Leading Jockey.

Leading Jockey
It’s the second time in three years that I’ve been Leading Jockey at Aintree and it’s been a very lucky place for me. I’m just lucky that, riding for Colin Tizzard and Jessica Harrington, I always have good horses for Aintree. It was a fantastic week with three Grade 1 wins and I couldn’t be happier.

Thursday
It started off perfectly with Supasundae on Thursday.

He deserved that, he’s been knocking on the door all season.

The Stayers’ Hurdle at Cheltenham was probably his only bad run in the last two-and-a-half years.

It was a good race. He travelled well and I knew turning into the straight that he’d take plenty of beating. When Melon fell it actually inconvenienced me more than it helped me.

Kemboy was given a great ride by Ruby on Thursday, who dictated things from the front. I was a little bit surprised that the others in the race like Bristol De Mai and Elegant Escape let him have such a lead. He jumped from fence to fence and was a very, very impressive winner. Falling so early in the Gold Cup was probably an advantage to him. He was a much fresher horse than some of his rivals.

Lostintranslation was very, very impressive in winning the Mildmay Novices’ Chase. He’s a horse I’ve always thought an awful lot of. It was the right time to step him up to 3 miles. We always knew that step up would bring huge improvements and it was a very, very good performance. He’s only a seven-year-old and he’s going to be a lot stronger horse next year, he’s still a big baby. It’s very exciting to look forward to next year with him – potentially the King George and the Gold Cup. He obviously has to improve plenty on what he’s shown so far.

Reserve Tank
Reserve Tank is another horse that’s improved all through the Winter. I rode him first in Chepstow and he was very green. Then he won a Novice Hurdle at Sandown with me, beating a good Nicky Henderson mare in the process. The two-and-a-half miles definitely suited him. He’s a horse that could be anything – he’ll probably go novice chasing next season. He’s an exciting horse to look forward to.

Tiger Roll
He’s an unbelievable horse who had an unbelievable performance yesterday. He made a couple of mistakes on the way around, but was clever and never looked like falling. It’s just an unbelievable achievement to become the first horse since Red Rum to win back-to-back Grand Nationals. It’s a credit to Gordon and all his team to get him back fresh and well. People like Keith Donoghue who does all the work with him as well and knows him more than anybody.

They were quietly confident going over there but I thought he was a very short price for a Grand National. He proved us wrong, though, and…

I wouldn’t bet against Tiger Roll winning a third one next year.

He’s not an old horse and has plenty of room for improvement. There’ll be huge celebrations in the village of Summerhill this evening.

Magic Of Light ran a cracking race. I didn’t think she’d take to them fences. I thought she was a bit careful and she might just back off a bit too much. But, to be fair to Jessie, she wanted to have a go with her and was schooled very well over National fences.

She was the opposite to how I thought she’d be. She was good and brave and Paddy Kennedy gave her a super ride. She ran a storming race and I’d say all things will be geared towards her going back there next year.

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