BUDGET airline supremo Michael O’Leary had an absolute Ryan-mare this week.
If he’s not threatening to make passengers stand up or charge them to use the toilet on his planes – spend a pound to spend a penny, if you will – he’s busy tearing strips off British handicapper Martin Greenwood.
Michael O’Leary sparked controversy over the Grand National weights this week
The top racehorse owner – whose horses carry the famous maroon and white silks of Gigginstown House Stud – thrives off controversy. He’s one of those blokes that apparently enjoys being unpopular.
And for the third year in a row, he had a right old moan about Tiger Roll’s handicap mark after the Grand National weights were revealed on Tuesday.
In other news, night follows day, water is wet and the Pope wears a funny hat.
The tiresome O’Leary was not happy when 12-year-old Tiger was allotted a perfectly reasonable 11st 4lbs for the Aintree marathon, a race he memorably won in 2018 and 2019.
So, as is now an annual O’Leary tradition, he ruled Tiger Roll out of the race and hijacked the day’s events to make himself the centre of attention.
He labelled Greenwood, the BHA’s senior handicapper, “idiotic” and said Tiger Roll’s rating – which is only 2lb higher than his last National win – was “absurd”.
He went on to question Greenwood’s integrity, remarkably claiming that he “doesn’t want Tiger Roll to run”.
His bizarre statement came just hours after Tiger Roll’s trainer Gordon Elliott had grinned: “He has got a nice weight so the Grand National could be on the agenda.”
Over the years we’ve become accustomed to O’Leary talking out of his backside, like you get used to haemorrhoids.
O’Leary (right) has ruled Tiger Roll out of this year’s Grand National
But his latest rant overstepped the mark. He said the amount of weight Tiger Roll was being asked to carry was not “safe” – that it posed a threat to the horse’s wellbeing.
This is just not true and it’s irresponsible for a man in his position to speak so carelessly about horse welfare, a thorny issue at the best of times.
As if the animal rights extremists need another stick to bash the Grand National with – especially when the race is safer than it has ever been.
If it is not safe for a horse to carry 11st 4lb, the sort of weight they have been carrying over the jumps for decades, then we may as well pack up and go home.
Red Rum carried 11st 8lb when winning his third National as a 12-year-old – when the fences were bigger and the race was over two furlongs further.
O’Leary’s fixation stems from the death of his runner Hear The Echo at Aintree in 2009, when he sadly collapsed and died from a heart attack on the run-in.
In 2017, he wrote a disgraceful letter saying then handicapper Phil Smith was putting his horses at risk and said Hear The Echo died because of “excessive weight”.
But since 2000, Hear The Echo remains the only horse to have died as a result of a heart attack in the Grand National. Hundreds of horses have carried in excess of 11st since then.
If O’Leary wants to play the welfare card, maybe he should take a look at himself in the mirror before opening his mouth.
If anyone put Tiger Roll in harm’s way it was him when – trying to prove a point to racing chiefs – he chose to run him in the Grade 1 Bowl at last year’s National meeting.
The horse was taken off his feet from the word go racing off level-weights against far superior horses. He could easily have taken a tumble in trying to keep up.
This year’s Grand National will be poorer for Tiger Roll’s absence, there is no doubt about that, but at least we will be spared weeks of drivel in the build-up.
