Rarely has a horse who finished fifth in a Grade 2 race garnered so much attention, but that was the case last Sunday at Navan when Tiger Roll made his comeback in the Boyne Hurdle.

The 10-year-old, who suffered a small setback earlier in the season, was making his first appearance since his second Grand National win last April and delivered a promising display.

Held up in second last place for most of the journey, he made ground for rider Keith Donoghue coming out of the back straight and briefly looked like he might go close to winning when jumping into a share of second place at the second last.

However Donoghue said he just “blew up” from here, which was perfectly perfectly understandable on what was the son of Authorized’s first run in 316 days.

“I thought he ran a brilliant race,” said his trainer Gordon Elliott, who still won the race with the same owner Gigginstown House Stud’s Cracking Smart.

“I’m absolutely thrilled with the horse and Keith is delighted with him. It’s all systems go for Cheltenham and the Grand National now.”

Tiger Roll’s participation in the Grand National had been in doubt, with Eddie O’Leary who manages his brother Michael’s Gigginstown House Stud, suggesting they would not run the horse unless he was given a sufficiently reduced mark for the National, which takes place on 4 April.

However, O’Leary announced last Friday that Tiger Roll would bid to emulate Red Rum and try and win a third Grand National.

He will carry top weight of 11st 10lb at Aintree but before that he will bid for another piece of history by becoming a five-time Cheltenham Festival winner and a treble Cross Country Chase winner next month.

Tiger Roll has taken that race each of the last two seasons, using it as a platform to success at Aintree. He is 6/4 favourite to win again but may well be facing his toughest opponent yet in the French raider Easysland, who showed he can handle the banks at Cheltenham when scoring there at the November meeting earlier this season.

Emery impresses

Elsewhere last weekend, the Willie Mullins-trained Cilaos Emery convinced his connections to stump up the £22,500 supplementary fee to get him into the Champion Hurdle, after running out a convincing winner of the Red Mills Trial Hurdle at Gowran Park on Saturday.

On the same card, Chris’s Dream continued his good run of form in the Red Mills Chase, holding off the challenge of Shattered Love late on.