IT was good to see Tiger Roll paraded at the Meath/Tara point-to-point at Fairyhouse even though he never ran between the flags.

What was equally important was that his trainer Gordon Elliott was there and gave a public interview; while also at the meeting was Tony Martin, trainer of Gold Cup second and Grand National fifth Anibale Fly.

Both these trainers got their grounding in point-to-points and still have many friends in the amateur sport. It is good to realise that they have not forgotten those they knew when their feet were still on the lower steps of the ladder to success.

Seeing Tiger Roll, that most versatile of National Hunt horses makes me think of his success in the four-mile National Hunt Chase at Cheltenham.

Unfortunately this year’s renewal of the race became mired in controversy with to my mind, too many suggestions that the contest is past its use by date and should be consigned to the history books.

Of course, although many may not be aware of it, the race does already have its own history book, the excellent work by Peter Stevens published in 2019 to mark 150 years of the race. Begun to encourage breeders of National Hunt horses, it was initially held in different parts of Britain to make it accessible to as many people as possible. It was always run at four miles with 24 separate obstacles and apart from the Grand National it was always the second most valuable race on the jumping calendar.

However, after 1901 it was decided that the race should be run at a regular venue and for the next eight years, it was staged only at Cheltenham and Warwick.

After five successive years at Warwick it looked as though that course would be the its permanent home but a determined bid by Cheltenham, who could offer a prestigous festival, won the day.

Although Warwick bid for race on a number of occasions, it stayed at Prestbury Park and has been there ever since.

The format was basically that of a maiden steeplechase for amateur riders and it retained its position as the most valuable race of the meeting until 1946 when the Gold Cup overtook it in value and the Champion Hurdle surpassed it next. By 1964 it had fallen to fifth most valuable and has continuously since then lost prestige.

Firstly it was reduced to a maidens at closing of entries race and then became a regular novice chase firstly restricted to winners of no more than two chases, although winners of any other kind of race were still excluded.

It was not until 2002 that hurdle and flat winners were allowed.

The reason for the change being given as “to allow more opportunities for a larger pool of novices”. It was also stated that this change was not necessarily permanent and that the old format could be reinstated in the future.

In 2006 three horses were fatally injured in the race and despite the recommendation that the pre-2002 conditions should be reinstated, this was not followed.

I was pleased to see that Charlie Brooks was keen to advocate a return to the old conditions following the fiasco of this year’s race. As he pointed out, removing hurdles winners would surely ensure that the race was run at a more suitable pace in the early stages.

To my mind it would be a tragedy if this historic race were to fall by the wayside for without it there would be no Cheltenham festival as we know it.

Punchestown also owes it a debt as the old Maiden Plate, also ran over four miles, was for many years, in fact until after the second World War, the most valuable race at its festival.

The National Hunt chase has provided nine winners of the Grand National although only three horses have completed the double Why Not in 1886 and 1894, Quare Times 1954 and 1956 and now Tiger Roll in 2017 and this year.

Of more recent significance is that in the last five years as well as Tiger Roll’s heroics the 2015 winner Cause Of Causes ran second at Aintree while last year’s winner Rathvinden was third this year.

Incidentally the 2016 winner, Minella Rocco, while not featuring at Aintree did make the frame in the Gold Cup. If the four miler is still producing horses like that, it still surely has a value in the calendar.

Realistically, if the race were dropped from the festival it would only reappear as a less valuable race under a different guise at another meeting as happened with the old four mile Cheltenham Foxhunters which now appears on the card at the hunter chase meeting there in May.

FAMILY ASSOCIATION

While I am writing this prior to the running of Punchestown’s Champion Hunter Chase, I am pleased to see five high class British hunter chasers entered. Although British raider have a poor winning record at our festival they would seem to have a strong hand for this years’ renewal.

In the end the Aintree winner Top Wood didn’t make the journey. He is owned by Johnny Weatherby, of the famous racing family. I was lucky enough to meet him at a point-to-point in England a few years back at which he had a runner. That family’s links with hunt racing go back over many years.

In my childhood, I lived in Whaddon, now subsumed in Milton Keynes where the family then lived. I even did a bob-a-job for the scouts at their home Whaddon Hall.

In 1957, Charles Weatherby won the Whaddon Chase members race on his own Flick. In 1959 however, at long odds, the horse finished third in the Cheltenham Foxhunters, but I am not sure who rode him that day.

If that family connection does not go back far enough, in 1925 at the Berks & Bucks Staghounds meeting at Sonnig near Reading what has often been referred to as the first ladies race (enormously in fact as the first had taken place some four years previously in Wiltshire) was won by Mrs Weatherby.

Now that is a long family association.