ONE can easily imagine the reception Tiger Roll would have received at Cheltenham on St Patrick’s Day had the 2021 Festival not been held behind closed doors. It would likely have rivalled or even surpassed that bestowed on any champion of the near or distant past, probably starting before he had even passed the post.
The five-time Cheltenham Festival star is, of course, also firmly lodged in the history books as a dual winner of the Grand National, unlucky not to have had the chance to go for a record-equalling third win in one of the world’s most famous races. The 11-year-old is a son of the Derby winner Authorized (Montjeu), a stallion who has also supplied the sadly ill-fated Grade 1 standout Nichols Canyon in addition to his string of top-level winners on the flat.
Tiger Roll is, of course, a gelding as is his Group 2 Lonsdale Cup-winning half-brother Ahzeemah (Dubawi), a Godolphin-owned bay who chased home Voleuse De Coeurs in the Group 1 Irish St Leger. However, the good news for breeders is that the pair has another sibling of note and he is a stallion in Ireland.
Austrian School (Teofilo), who is a shade more closely related to Tiger Roll than Ahzeemah, ran only on the level, his five wins coming from a mile to 14 furlongs. Those include a six-length score in a heritage handicap at Musselburgh.
He was only beaten by a head when runner-up in the Mallard Handicap over the St Leger course and distance at Doncaster, was a neck runner-up in a two-mile handicap in Scotland and earned blacktype at Newmarket, Hamilton, Ascot and Sandown, the latter a third-place finish to Dee Ex Bee in the Group 3 Henry II Stakes.
Teofilo’s exploits as a sire of top-class international flat horses is well known and the Kildangan Stud-based classic sire, who will soon become the first stallion son of Galileo (Sadler’s Wells) to hit the 100 stakes-winner mark, already has two Group 1 sires among his early sons at stud.
Havana Gold, whose top win came over a mile, is responsible for the Group 1-winning sprinter and popular young stallion Havana Grey. The younger horse has a large initial crop of yearlings and covered 130 mares last year. Kermadec is the other one of note and that top-class Australian miler has the dual Group 1-winning filly Montefilia in his first crop.
Like most leading flat sires, Teofilo has also had plenty of winners under National Hunt rules and those include the Grade 2-winning hurdlers London Prize and Nadaitak and the Grade B hurdles heroine Pearl Of The West among others who have won or placed in blacktype company over obstacles.
Austrian School is closely related to a racing legend and he has the credentials to make an impact as a National Hunt sire.
AUSTRIAN SCHOOL (IRE), Bay 2015. Won five races, £169,909, from 1 mile to 1 mile 6 furlongs, at 2 to 4 years placed second in Brit. Stallion Studs EBF Glasgow Stakes, Hamilton Park, L, Jockey Club Rose Bowl Stakes, Newmarket, L, and third in Matchbook Henry II Stakes, Sandown Park, Gr.3, Londonmetric Noel Murless Stakes, Ascot, L.
Retired to Stud in 2020.
Stands at: Clongiffen Stud, Longwood, Enfield, Co Meath, A83 F660, Ireland.
Contact: Robert Honner
Telephone: +353 (0)86 4679272
Email: clongiffen@gmail.com
Web: www.clongiffenstud.com
Fee: €3,000