Tiger Roll at Market Rasen: The Complete Story

Tiger Roll was bred in Ireland, a bay gelding by Authorized out of Swiss Roll. His breeding was moderate — Authorized won the 2007 Epsom Derby, but his progeny's jumping ability was not universally high — and his physique was unprepossessing: he stood at barely 15.1 hands, smaller than most of his contemporaries. When Nigel Hawke bought him for £10,000 at Doncaster Bloodstock Sales in August 2013, he was buying a horse that nobody else had prioritised.

The Nigel Hawke Years

Hawke, a Devon-based trainer with a small but well-run string, prepared Tiger Roll for his debut with the same care he applied to every horse. The Market Rasen juvenile hurdle was chosen because it offered the right level of competition for a first run — a manageable test to assess the horse's attitude, jumping, and ability.

Tiger Roll jumped well that day, travelled within himself, and won with something in reserve. Hawke was satisfied. He was not expecting what happened next.

The Sale to Gigginstown

The sale of Tiger Roll in January 2014 was straightforward in financial terms — Gigginstown paid £80,000, a significant profit on the £10,000 purchase price — but it changed everything for the horse. Gordon Elliott, who trained for Gigginstown extensively, had the facilities, the expertise, and the ambition to develop a young hurdler into something special.

Tiger Roll moved to Cullentra House Stables in County Meath and began a new chapter. He had won one race, at a moderate English track, as a 12/1 shot in a five-runner race. By the following March he was a Cheltenham Festival winner.

Physical Characteristics and Temperament

Tiger Roll was small, compact, and athletic. His stature — which attracted considerable comment during his career, as people marvelled at how a horse so small could jump so boldly — belied a physical toughness and a mental constitution that allowed him to handle the most demanding racecourses in the world.

He was bold at his fences, willing to take off from wherever he found himself, and rarely made serious errors. On the cross-country courses at Cheltenham and Punchestown, where the obstacles are varied and unconventional, this boldness was an asset. He treated a bank, a ditch, or a plain fence with the same confidence, and it was this consistency that made him uniquely suited to the cross-country discipline.

Career Highlights

Tiger Roll's career record is one of the richest in modern National Hunt racing. He won the Triumph Hurdle at Cheltenham in 2014. He won the Cheltenham cross-country race three times: in 2018, 2019, and 2021. He won the Grand National in 2018 and 2019, ridden by Davy Russell, carrying 10 stone 13 pounds the first time and 11 stone 1 pound the second.

He also won the Boyne Hurdle at Navan, the Munster National at Tipperary, and various other races that demonstrated the breadth of his ability across hurdles, chases, and cross-country courses. In a career stretching from 2013 to 2022, he accumulated prize money of over £1.4 million in Britain and Ireland.

Retirement

Tiger Roll was retired after his final appearance in the 2022 Grand National, in which he finished well back in the field. He was ten years old and had given everything the sport could reasonably ask of any horse. He received a farewell parade at Cheltenham at the 2023 Festival — a recognition of what he had meant to racing — and was retired to life at owner Michael O'Leary's Gigginstown estate in Ireland.

The horse that started his career at £10,000 and 12/1 at Market Rasen had become distinctly irreplaceable.

Market Rasen is a right-handed, sharp National Hunt course in the Lincolnshire Wolds, approximately nine furlongs around. The track is relatively flat and fast — it does not ask the questions of a horse that Cheltenham or Aintree do, and the fences are conventional rather than challenging. This makes it an ideal venue for horses at the beginning of their careers and horses returning from injury or a break.

The Juvenile Hurdle — November 2013

The race in which Tiger Roll debuted at Market Rasen was a Class 4 juvenile hurdle over two miles, with five runners. The prize money was modest, the competition unremarkable, and the winning margin — three and three-quarter lengths — was sufficient without being dramatic.

What the race revealed was a horse who could jump cleanly, travel smoothly, and find more when asked. Nigel Hawke told Racing Post afterwards that Tiger Roll had shown him everything he needed to see: the horse had handled the hurdles without any anxious moments and had beaten the others on ability rather than luck.

Five runners, twelve-to-one, two miles at Market Rasen — this is what the beginning of the greatest National Hunt career of the twenty-first century looked like.

The Summer Plate

Market Rasen's signature race is the Grade 3 Summer Plate, run in July over approximately two miles six furlongs. It is one of the most valuable National Hunt races run during the summer months in Britain, and since its elevation to Grade 3 status in 2020 it has attracted fields of real quality.

The race draws staying chasers from leading yards who are looking for a summer target during the period when many of the top horses are on a break. Several Summer Plate winners have gone on to perform at the highest level in the autumn — the form of the race tends to work out. For a full breakdown of the race, including historical trends and betting patterns, see our Market Rasen Summer Plate guide.

The Summer Jumping Programme

Market Rasen's identity is built around the summer jumping programme. The course stages National Hunt racing throughout the summer months — unusually, since most of the top jumping venues switch to flat racing or close during this period — and it has cultivated a loyal following among racegoers who want to watch jumpers in good conditions.

The summer programme includes novice hurdles, handicap chases, and bumpers that provide opportunities for horses at varying stages of development. The July and August meetings draw consistent crowds from across the East Midlands and beyond. For the broader summer jumping context, see our Market Rasen summer jumping guide.

Course Characteristics

The track's sharp configuration suits horses that like to bowl along at a decent pace. Handy types and front-runners tend to do well here, particularly in the sprint hurdles and shorter handicap chases. Horses accustomed to galloping tracks need to adapt to Market Rasen's tighter bends, and debut runners sometimes take time to adjust.

Tiger Roll's performance in November 2013 suggested he had no difficulty with the track — his debut was on a relatively empty course in the winter, the conditions were unremarkable, and he handled it without difficulty. But his subsequent career revealed a horse who thrived precisely in the opposite conditions: big crowds, demanding fences, courses that separate the bold from the careful.

10 November 2013: The Debut

The debut at Market Rasen is the moment from which everything else follows. A five-runner juvenile hurdle, a modest prize, a horse that had cost £10,000 in August. Tiger Roll won easily, jumped well, and gave no indication of what he would become.

Nigel Hawke watched from the stands. Mark Quinlan, his jockey that day, described a horse that was easy to ride and hard to stop. Neither of them could know that within six years the horse would be the most famous National Hunt horse in the world.

The significance of the Market Rasen debut is that it happened at all. Tiger Roll had to win somewhere first. He had to demonstrate enough to attract the attention of a buyer willing to pay serious money, and to persuade Gordon Elliott that a £80,000 gamble on a raw English juvenile was worth taking. He did both in a single afternoon.

The 2014 Triumph Hurdle — Cheltenham Festival

Three months after Market Rasen, Tiger Roll won the Triumph Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival in March 2014 — only his second start for Gordon Elliott, at 10/1. The transformation from a 12/1 juvenile at a small English course to a Grade 1 winner at Cheltenham in ninety days is one of the most striking in recent National Hunt history.

He beat Western Warhorse and The New One in a field of high-quality juveniles, and his performance was convincing. Elliott had spotted what Hawke had identified: a horse with clean, accurate jumping and a competitive temperament that switched on when the pressure increased.

The 2018 Grand National — First Victory

Tiger Roll's first Grand National victory in 2018 was achieved in a manner that set the template: he jumped round Aintree's thirty National fences with a precision that belied his modest size, ridden by Davy Russell, and held on by a head from Pleasant Company in a photo finish at odds of 10/1.

The race had been close enough to provide drama. But watching the replay, Tiger Roll had never looked likely to be beaten. He jumped the last fence in a clear lead and held his rivals off with the determination of a horse that has been through tougher situations.

The 2019 Grand National — Back-to-Back

The defence of the Grand National title in 2019 was carried out under a significantly higher weight — 11 stone 1 pound — but the result was the same: Tiger Roll won, again ridden by Davy Russell, beating Magic Of Light by two and three-quarter lengths. Red Rum was the last horse to win consecutive Grand Nationals, in 1973 and 1974. Tiger Roll joined him on the back-to-back list in April 2019.

The celebrations were as real as the performance. Michael O'Leary, who had initially threatened to withdraw Tiger Roll from the race over a handicap dispute, had relented. The horse came good, as he almost always did.

Cheltenham Cross-Country Victories

Tiger Roll won the Glenfarclas Cross Country Chase at Cheltenham three times: in 2018, 2019, and 2021. These performances, across obstacles that range from brush fences to banks to open ditches, demonstrated the breadth of his jumping ability. On the cross-country course, the boldness that had been evident from his Market Rasen debut was expressed on the grandest possible stage.

Tiger Roll's legacy at Market Rasen is singular. He is the only horse to have debuted at the Lincolnshire course and gone on to win the Grand National twice. The connection is slight in duration — one race, one afternoon — but enormous in significance. Market Rasen is where the clock started.

What the Debut Means

Starting points matter in racing. They are the moments when the record begins, when the horse first demonstrates that it can compete, and when decisions about the future are made. Tiger Roll's debut at Market Rasen was the event that triggered his sale to Gigginstown — it was the evidence that persuaded a buyer to spend £80,000 on a small bay gelding that had been bought for £10,000 in August.

Without that Market Rasen win, there is no Triumph Hurdle, no Grand National, no farewell parade at Cheltenham. The course's place in Tiger Roll's story is structural rather than incidental.

Market Rasen acknowledges the connection. The Jockey Club, which operates the course, has referenced Tiger Roll's debut in its marketing and raceday programmes. His picture is part of the course's promotional materials. For a course that does not often host horses of the highest quality, the association with one of the sport's greatest horses is a source of real pride.

The Broader Summer Jumping Legacy

Tiger Roll is not the only horse of significance to have begun his career at Market Rasen. Altior, the multiple Cheltenham Festival winner, also made early appearances at the course. The summer and autumn juvenile programme at Market Rasen has consistently provided a first glimpse of horses who go on to better things, partly because the course's modest entry requirements and accessible fields give promising horses a reasonable starting point.

This function — as a launching pad for horses who will be remembered elsewhere — is part of what makes Market Rasen worth following for the serious National Hunt follower. The horses who win juvenile hurdles here in November sometimes reappear at Cheltenham in March, and the form from modest beginnings occasionally proves informative.

Summer Jumping's Place in the Calendar

Tiger Roll's career was built primarily on winter and spring performances, but the course that introduced him was a summer course. Market Rasen's summer programme, anchored by the Summer Plate, has an identity distinct from the autumn and winter jumping circuit — it produces horses in different conditions, at a different stage of their development, with different going and different demands.

The course's betting guide covers the patterns that emerge from the summer programme: the types of horses that run well here, the trainers who target the meeting, and the form that tends to work out when taken forward to better contests in the autumn.

A Horse Worth Remembering

Tiger Roll was not the biggest horse, not the most expensive, not the most fashionably bred. He was, for a period of about five years, the most loved horse in National Hunt racing — small enough to inspire affection, good enough to win anything, durable enough to run in consecutive Grand Nationals and win both.

It started at Market Rasen.