Who is the greatest Grand National winner? Tiger Roll or Red Rum

On the 6th of April 2019 Tiger Roll became the first horse since Red Rum in 1974 to win back to back renewals of the Grand National.

Almost as soon as Tiger Roll crossed the winning line that day the horseracing media began asking the question could Tiger Roll achieve what even the iconic Red Rum could not and possibly win three consecutive Grand Nationals?

This potential milestone in the one hundred and eighty-one year history of the Grand National should ensure that the most famous horse race in the world will receive even more media attention than usual this year. All eyes will definitely be on Tiger Roll on Saturday 4th April 2020.

If Tiger Roll was to achieve his third Grand National win, those amongst us who like to try and compare champions from different eras will inevitably be asking the question: who is the greatest Grand National horse ever: Red Rum or Tiger Roll?

Inevitably, as with any other pair of great champions in sporting history, it is difficult to find a set of criteria by which to accurately compare these legends. How do you compare Jack Nicklaus with Tiger Woods? Or Pele with Lionel Messi?  Whatever answer is provided will undoubtedly prove contentious but surely the simple act of remembering these great champions and discussing their successes is the best reason to try and draw these comparisons?

So, how can we try and compare two of the greatest ever grand national runners?

We’ve put together a series of areas where we can draw some sort of comparison between them and will give one point for the winner of each area. 

Three wins and two runners-up spots from five attempts would surely give the edge to Red Rum in this category. 

Tiger Roll fans will undoubtedly argue that their champion has a 100% win record in the race whereas Red Rum’s is “only” 60% but for any horse to even compete in the Grand National in five consecutive years, let alone never finish out of the first two, surely has to be one of the remarkable achievements in National Hunt horse racing.

Red Rum 1 Tiger Roll 0

Since Red Rum’s era a number of changes have been made to the grand national fences and drops that runners have to face in the Grand National. Major reviews and adaptations were carried out in 1987, 1989, 2011 and 2012 with the overall differences between the fences that Red Rum jumped and those that Tiger Roll faces being:

• The core of each fence was changed from solid wood poles to plastic spruce. This makes the fences more forgiving and hopefully means injuries to horse and rider are fewer

• The steepness of the landing side of fences such as Becher’s Brook has been reduced 

Grand National stalwarts complain now that the essence of the Grand National has been removed and that the updated fences and drops do not provide anything like the jumping test that it did before the late 80s. 

Aintree racecourse and the BHA maintain that the race continues to be the tough test of jumping that it always has been but that now there is far less risk of injury to horse and rider which is what everyone wants to see.

When you see videos now of horses jumping Bechers Brook from the 1970s it does look considerably different to the experience of horses racing today. That said, Tiger Roll is a full hand shorter than Red Rum was so perhaps his lack of height offsets any changes that have taken place with the fences? 

Even taking Tiger Roll’s diminutive stature into consideration we think we’d still have to say that Red Rum comes out on top on the jumping front given he completed the course an amazing five times without falling.

Red Rum 2 Tiger Roll 0

The general consensus of opinion seems to be that the overall quality of the Grand National has increased over the last few years and, in most cases, the span between the top and bottom weight tends not to be as wide as it did in the era of Red Rum.

In Red Rum’s first Grand National in 1973 there were only four horses weighted above 11 stone with Crisp (1971 Champion Chase winner) and L’Escargot (1970 and 1971 Gold Cup winner) compressing the weights. The quality of those two champions is undoubted but, in contrast, thirteen of the jockeys in this race had to put up overweight due to the large number of runners allocated weights around the 10 stone mark which suggests quite a gulf in quality within this particular race. In addition, fourteen runners in the field returned an SP of 100/1 in that 1973 race.

Compare this to Tiger Roll’s victory in 2019 when fourteen horses in the field carried 11 stone or more and just one horse started the race priced at 100/1. 

As with the other sections, it is difficult to say who should win out here. Red Rum probably raced against the better individual horses but the depth of quality of opponent Tiger Roll has had to face means we will give this section to the “Tiger”.

Red Rum 2 Tiger Roll 1

If the Grand National was always run over exactly the same stretch of ground and always on the same going, perhaps analysing the respective times of the winners would help us to ascertain who was “the best”. It is rarely that simple though and the changes to the fences and any variation of the race distance (for example, the distance of the run to the first fence has been changed recently for safety reasons) will undoubtedly mean that any race time comparisons cannot be achieved on a simple like for like basis. 

What we can do is compare the times of the races in the same era and see what we can ascertain. Undoubtedly Red Rum’s first victory in 1973 is the one that will please those that believe winning times tell the most accurate story. With the help of firm ground and a relentless fast early pace set by the gallant Crisp, Red Rum broke the fastest Grand National record at that time by over 18 seconds. We have to go all the way back to 1935 and the first victory of dual Grand National winner, Reynoldstown, to find the previous record. To break a record that had stood for nearly seventy years must be seen as a huge achievement by Red Rum.

Tiger Roll, though, is obviously no slouch as his winning time on good to soft ground last year of 9 minutes 1.0s indicates. Only Many Clouds has completed the course in a faster time in the last twenty-three years which confirms the impression that Tiger Roll is probably one of the best Grand National winners of recent times.

On balance though, we would say that Red Rum’s 1973 win is the more impressive victory based on times.

Red Rum 3 Tiger Roll 1

Red Rum carried 12 stone and 11 stone 8lbs to victory in 1974 and 1977 respectively in what must surely be seen as two of the greatest weight carrying performances ever in the Grand National. 

Red Rum is the only horse to carry 12 stone to victory since before the second world war. In recent years the maximum weight permitted to be carried has dropped to 11st 12lbs and then a further two pounds to 11st 10lb. Only Many Clouds has carried more than 11st 6lbs to victory since Red Rum’s win with 11st 8lbs in 1977.

Tiger Roll is almost certainly likely to be anchored with 11st 10lb in the 2020 Grand National and, especially for such a small horse, he really will have to be a superstar to carry that much weight to a third victory.

For now, the weight carrying verdict must go to Red Rum.

Red Rum 4 Tiger Roll 1

Some observers may question if races run outside of the Grand National have any place in the equation when comparing Aintree greats but it surely must help to give an overall impression of star quality.

Red Rum offers up his five Grand National runs together with a victory in the Scottish National which came just twenty-one days after he won at Aintree in 1974. 

Ginger McCain also guided Red Rum to win five consecutive handicaps in the 1972/73 season, something very rarely achieved with steeplechasers. “Rummy” also managed to finish second in a Hennessy Gold Cup and fourth at the Cheltenham Festival in the 1971 version of the Mildmay of Flete over two and a half miles. 

Even more amazing is that this king of the stamina laden Grand National managed to win three races on the flat before switching to jumping and one of them was over five furlongs! 

All of these achievements add up to one of the most wonderful and diverse careers in horse racing history but even so we feel that here we must give the overall career nod to Tiger Roll.

To have the adaptability to win the Triumph Hurdle over two miles (2014), the National Hunt Chase over four miles (2017) and then to win at two further Cheltenham Festivals in the Cross Country (2018 and 2019) must go down as one of the greatest achievements ever in National Hunt racing. Even more unbelievable is that the horse had the ability to win a Grade Two 2m 5f Boyne Hurdle in between his Cross Country wins and in doing so achieve a level of versatility and quality that very few other horses in history would have been able to replicate.

Despite the amazing overall career record of Red Rum this category has to go to Tiger Roll.

Our result: Red Rum 4 Tiger Roll 2

We’ve chosen six categories to compare these two great horses and we’ve just come down on the side of Red Rum but it was very close!

Not included above is the suggestion that Red Rum’s heroics in the mid-70s may have helped save the Grand National at a time when the great race was threatened with extinction. 

Ginger McCain’s horse became a household name in 1970s Britain and his popularity extended well outside the usual horse racing circles. Even today, over forty years since he last ran, he is probably the most famous racehorse to have ever lived. The fact that Red Rum has managed to crossover into the lives of non-horse racing fans sways our minds towards him also being the greatest ever Grand National winner.

Tiger Roll’s popularity is ever increasing and the amount of interest in him and his racing team will be huge in the run-up to the 2020 Grand National. We feel he still has a little way to go to be more popular than Red Rum but if he manages a third consecutive Grand National victory in 2020, we might well feel differently this time next year!