The British Horseracing Authority fired a shot across Michael O’Leary’s bows as it stood shoulder to shoulder with handicapper Martin Greenwood over Tiger Roll’s Randox Grand National weight.
Ruling the 12-year-old, triumphant at Aintree in 2018 and 2019, out of this year’s race, the Ryanair boss on Tuesday dismissed the Gordon Elliott trainee's rating of 161 as “absurd”, panned the handicapper’s assessment as “idiotic” and further claimed Greenwood “doesn’t want Tiger Roll to run”.
But, responding to the verbal onslaught, BHA chief operating officer Richard Wayman said yesterday: “We have no intention of rising to the comments from Mr O'Leary in public.
“I would however like to thank and congratulate Martin for the thorough and fair approach he has taken to framing this year's Grand National weights, as always.”
O’Leary’s words will not result in a disrepute charge, but Wayman warned similar attacks could trigger action when the BHA's industry-wide code of conduct is published in the coming months.
“The industry is currently working together to finalise a code of conduct for the sport, which sets out the standards of behaviour we collectively expect of all of our industry participants, and which is underpinned by a formal regulatory framework to tackle breaches of the code,” added Wayman.
Greenwood put Tiger Roll on a 2lb higher mark for this year's National, compared to when he won comfortably in 2019.
His subsequent form was mixed, but he bounced back to his best in last year's cross country chase at the Cheltenham Festival.
Elliott was already preparing the veteran chaser to bid for a sixth success at the meeting, before O'Leary put a line through Aintree – where he could have joined Red Rum as a hat-trick hero.
O'Leary, boss of owners Gigginstown House Stud, gave a statement after the National weights were published on Tuesday.
Tiger Roll was allotted the same berth in the prestigious contest as last year's winner Minella Times.
"We don't believe it is fair or safe to ask him to carry close to top weight at the age of 12," O'Leary added.
"Since we are responsible for the welfare of Tiger Roll, we must protect him from the idiotic opinion of this handicapper.
"We therefore regret to announce that he will not run in this year's Aintree Grand National.
"Instead Tiger Roll will be trained for the Cross Country race in Cheltenham, and there is every likelihood that win, lose or draw, this will be his last racecourse appearance."
