Leading Irish trainer Gordon Elliott is over the moon with his stable star Tiger Roll's racecourse outing at Leopardstown after racing on Monday and now says it is all systems go for his title defence in the Cross Country Chase.
The two time Grand National winner will head to Cheltenham next week bidding for his fifth festival winner and truly cement himself into the history of the sport of being one of the greatest horses of a generation.
After suffering a setback at the start of the season it was touch and go for a short time whether he would be able to head to the festival at Prestbury Park or even head to Aintree for his record breaking run in the Grand National.
Simply unbelievable from Tiger Roll in the @Glenfarclas Cross Country Chase 😱#CheltenhamFestival pic.twitter.com/kCRH7nKkYY
— CheltenhamRacecourse (@CheltenhamRaces) March 13, 2019
However, after an operation which saw him have surgery to remove a chip in a joint in November he has been back in full training for a few months now and after his prep run at Navan where he finished a pleasing fifth and his run round Leopardstown on Monday afternoon, Elliott is delighted with how far he has come in a shot space of time.
(Credit Racing Post) Elliott said: "I was delighted with Tiger Roll. Lisa rode him and everything went well so it's all systems go for the cross-country.
"At this stage, they are all just ticking over ahead of Cheltenham but we needed to get a good blow into Tiger and I'm delighted by what he did there. I couldn’t be happier."