Red Grand National Horses

Tiger Roll did not get the chance to win his third consecutive Grand National due to the 2020 race being cancelled sue to covid and then connections chose to withdraw him from the race in 2021 in protest at what they saw as an allocation of an unfair handicap mark. It remains to be seen what will happen in 2022 but it will be a real shame if the twelve-year-old gelding does not get a chance to run in the National again. Tiger Roll has continually confounded the critics who first said he was too small to jump Aintree fences and then said that the additional weight he had to carry in 2019 would be his undoing. The Gordon Elliott trained gelding is an enigma in that he had the speed to win four races at around two miles (including the Triumph Hurdle) but also the required stamina to win events such as the National Hunt Chase and the Grand National. Undoubtedly, the little horse is one of the iconic stars of National Hunt racing with five wins at the Cheltenham Festival in three different races, as well as being the first horse to retain the Grand National in forty-five years. Tiger Roll suffered five consecutive defeats following his win in the Grand National in 2019 but roared back to form when winning his third Cross Country race at the Cheltenham Festival in 2021 and that race has been stated as the gelding’s main target for 2022. In 2019 Tiger Roll won the National from a mark of 159 and his current UK rating is now below that mark but it remains to be seen what handicap rating he will be given for the 2022 Grand National.

Acapella Bourgeois is a classy performer having won Graded events over hurdles and fences including when taking the Grade 3 BobbyJo Chase for the last two years. The BobbyJo Chase has been a useful stepping-stone to the Grand National with six winners going on to finish in the first three at Aintree over the past twenty years.  This season he has also confirmed he is in decent form when finishing runner up for the second time to the dual Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Al Boum Photo in the New Year's Day Chase at Tramore in January. Acapella Bourgeois has already proven his liking for a marathon test when finishing a fine seven length third in the Irish Grand National two seasons ago.  Willie Mullins’ eleven-year-old gelding is very versatile as regards ground conditions having won on good, soft, and heavy and he also does not have too many miles on the clock for a horse of his age having had just nineteen chase starts. Willie Mullins won the Grand National back in 2005 with Hedgehunter and has had another four horses finish in the first four places from forty runners over the last twenty years.

Run Wild Fred’s standout runs so far in his career have come when he has faced decent ground conditions, most notably when runner-up in last year’s Irish National and recently at Navan in the Troytown Chase where he decimated a really good field for a very easy seven and a half lengths victory. Unfortunately, the handicapper was also suitably impressed with Run Wild Fred’s performance at Navan and has put the gelding up a whopping fourteen pounds for that effort. The question must now be if that sizeable rise will negate his chance in the Aintree Grand National. The Gordon Elliott trained gelding is now on a mark of 159 which, if he runs from that level at Aintree, would almost certainly mean he will be one of the top weights. Only Bristol De Mai and Yala Enki were rated above 159 in last year’s National so it would be a stellar performance for this young horse to win a National from such a high rating.