The bronze of Red Rum that stands by Aintree’s paddock is in keeping with the legend’s modest stature.
But it casts a long shadow over the runners for the Randox Health Grand National.
In particular, the returning champions - it is now 45 years since Red Rum became the last horse to win the great race twice, returning for an iconic third triumph in 1977.
“The National is a race that has always been in everyone’s minds, and just for Tiger Roll to be spoken of in the same breath of Red Rum is amazing,” says Gordon Elliott, whose gelding will bid to break a losing sequence that spans the generations.
“The following he has is great. Whenever anyone meets you and asks about a horse, they all ask about Tiger Roll.
“He’s caught people’s imagination. There is a lot of support behind him going into the National.
“I’m under no illusions. I know it’s going to be a massive ask, but it would be brilliant if he could do it.”
There are traits common to both horses.
Like Red Rum, who dead-heated on the Flat at Aintree as a two-year-old, Tiger Roll was bred with summer campaigns in mind.
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The son of 2007 Derby hero Authorized was purchased by Sheikh Mohammed, one of Flat racing’s most potent owners, but failed to make it to the racecourse in his colours.
Moved on at the sales to west country trainer Nigel Hawke, who partnered Seagram to victory in the 1991 National, Tiger Roll impressed on his hurdles debut at Market Rasen in November 2013 - in the process catching the eye of Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary.
The £80,000 spent to transfer Tiger Roll to Elliott in Longwood, Co Meath, is a meagre sum to the Irishman, who routinely spends multiples of that figure to acquire National Hunt bloodstock.
It was money well spent.
Tiger Roll won the Triumph Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival in 2014, returning to the Cotswolds to capture the JT McNamara National Hunt Chase in 2017 and the Glenfarclas Chase a year later.
The following month, making light of his diminutive size - O’Leary infamously dismissed Tiger Roll as “a little rat of a thing” - he lifted the world’s most famous steeplechase under wily veteran rider Davy Russell.
Elliott was 29 years old and had yet to saddle a winner in Ireland when Silver Birch, a cast-off from British champion trainer Paul Nicholls, landed the National in 2007.
“When you win it once, you want to go and do it again,” says Elliott, the son of a car mechanic who rose from the bottom to command one of his trade’s powerhouse stables, on the way claiming success in the 2016 Cheltenham Gold Cup with O’Leary’s Don Cossack.
“We’ve won it twice now. We’d love to win it three times.”
The snag is that Aintree glory has arrived with a career epitaph - a routine Tiger Roll seeks to buck on Merseyside.
Like previous winners, the nine-year-old carries more weight - he is 9lb higher in the handicap - but not the mental scars of battle.
Tiger Roll collected a fourth Cheltenham prize - a second Glenfarclas Chase - last month to earn 7-2 favouritism for this afternoon’s test.
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“It’s a stupid price,” objects Elliott. “You’d want that to be getting round, never mind winning the race.
“But I can’t see him getting much bigger, because everyone will be having their fivers and tenners on him on the day.”
But Elliott, who expects a 13-strong representation in the 40-runner field - his mentor, record-breaking champion trainer Martin Pipe, once fielded 10 horses - has good news for the market leader’s backers.
“He’s had a better preparation this year than he had last year - it’s hard to say why,” he says. “He won on the bridle at Cheltenham - it was all over four out.
“The horse has great profile, he knows his way round the place and to be heading into the National in the form he’s in, it’s frightening.”
