Gigginstown House Stud, near Mullingar, County Westmeath, was founded in 2000 and is owned
by Ryanair Chief Executive Michael O’Leary. The first winner in the now-familiar maroon and white silks was Tuco, trained by David Wachman, in Goffs Land Rover Bumper at Fairyhouse on May 5, 2001 and Gigginstown has since become a force majeure in National Hunt racing, not only in Ireland, but in Britain, too.
Indeed, the operation can boast no fewer than three winners of the Grand National, having first won the world-famous steeplechase for the first time with the novice Rule The World, trained by Michael ‘Mouse’ Morris, in 2016, followed by the celebrated Tiger Roll, trained by Gordon Elliott, in both 2018 and 2019. Having become the first horse since Red Rum to win the National two years running, Tiger Roll was denied the chance to complete an unprecedented hat-trick, first by the Covid-19 pandemic and then by his owner, after O’Leary objected to “an unfair weight” allotted by handicapper Martin Greenwood.
Nevertheless, in happier times, Tiger Roll was also just one of three horses ever to win five or more races at the Cheltenham Festival. Despite being “a little rat of a thing”, according to O’Leary, the Authorized gelding was victorious in the Triumph Hurdle (2014), the National Hunt Chase (2017) and the Cross Country Chase three times (2018, 2019 and 2021). All told, at the time of writing, Gigginstown House Stud has chalked up 35 winners at the March showpiece meeting. Highlights include two victories in the Cheltenham Gold Cup, courtesy of War Of Attrition, trained by Morris, in 2006 and Don Cossack, trained by Elliott, in 2016. After a high-profile split with the most successful trainer in the history of the Cheltenham Festival, Willie Mullins, in 2016, Gigginstown House Stud settled their differences six years later, so further success in the ‘Blue Riband’ event may be a distinct possibility.