Dual National winner ‘not a match for top-class runners’ Elliott may run popular horse in Punchestown Gold CupTiger Roll is not a Gold Cup horse despite the lofty rating he now has, according to the man who knows him best. Gordon Elliott, who has trained the enormously popular little horse to land a string of big races over the last six years, said on Tuesday that Tiger Roll’s liking for unusual race conditions helped make him hard to beat in races like the cross-country at Cheltenham and the Grand National, while still leaving him well short of Gold Cup standard.
“For me if he ran in a Gold Cup I don’t think he’d go out on the last circuit,” said Elliott, apparently suggesting his stable star would be unable to keep tabs on top-class three-milers over normal steeplechase fences. “I know his rating suggests he should be bang there and hopefully I’m wrong but I just think he loves doing different things and jumping different types of fences.”