Rebecca Curtis

Rebecca Curtis

Haiti Couleurs was easy to spot at Cheltenham, bright white sleeves on his rider’s arms, wide through the early throes of the race, just behind the leaders, before the fluency and efficiency of his jumping took him into the front rank and beyond.

Rebecca Curtis looked on with the other 60,000 people as the horses in the National Hunt Chase raced up the home straight in front of her, two more circuits of Cheltenham’s Old Course still to run. All the work had been done at home in Newport in Pembrokeshire, in the southwestern-most corner of Wales, where any further west is Ireland. All the preparation. Haiti Couleurs was in his racing rhythm, moving easily, taking his fences in his stride. Pop, pop, pop. Metronomic. Then he moved to the front at the third last fence, led into the home straight and jumped the last two fences. He came away from his rivals on the run up the hill to the winning line, and his trainer thought, is that it? Is it over?

Relief, she says. Five years since she had last tasted success at the Cheltenham Festival, and relief is her over-riding feeling. He was favourite, she tells you. There was a high level of expectation.

Rebecca Curtis had previous in the National Hunt Chase. It was in 2012 that she won the race with Teaforthree, who was ridden to victory by the late John Thomas McNamara. More Cheltenham Festival success ensued, At Fishers Cross and O’Faolains Boy and Irish Cavalier followed on the heels of Teaforthree, four Cheltenham Festival winners in four years, and then none for five, until Lisnagar Oscar sprang a 50/1 shock in the Stayers’ Hurdle in 2020. Then another five years until Haiti Couleurs.

“I was delighted for the owners,” says the trainer. “There are three of them involved, The Brizzle Boys, and all of them are long-standing owners with me. James Conyers has been with me since the very beginning, he was involved in Teaforthree.”

It was a high point so far in a bounceback year for Rebecca Curtis. She is on track for her most successful season since 2016/17, when Irish Cavalier won the Charlie Hall Chase and Bigbadjohn won the Reynoldstown Chase.

“We’re very happy with the season we are having. I’m very pleased with the consistency of the horses’ performances, and that’s probably down to a combination of things. We’ve invested a lot in the yard, new gallops. We have amazing staff and great owners, and some nice horses. It would be nice to get a few more quality horses, but we’re very happy with where we are.”

The season could get even better tomorrow when Haiti Couleurs lines up in the BoyleSports Irish Grand National at Fairyhouse.

“We thought about the Irish Grand National immediately after he had won at Cheltenham,” she says. “We did think about graded races as well, about maybe going to Aintree, but those graded races are over three miles, and stamina is one of his big assets. Our gallop is about six furlongs around, and it usually takes him a lap just to warm up! He should be well suited by the distance of the Irish National.”

Haiti Couleurs bounced out of Cheltenham. Just over three weeks to Aintree, but almost seven weeks to Fairyhouse this year, it meant that the Dragon Dancer gelding could have a couple of nice quiet weeks before starting to build up again to Fairyhouse.

The handicapper hasn’t been harsh. A 7lb hike from the British handicapper for his impressive victory in the National Hunt Chase was more than fair, up to a mark of 142, and he gets to race off an Irish mark that is 1lb lower. An eight-year-old who has raced just four times over fences, he has the potential to go a fair way beyond the rating of 141 off which he will race tomorrow. And champion jockey elect Sean Bowen is free to ride him again, after a six-day ban picked up for careless riding at Aintree was reduced to four days on appeal.

“I was talking to Sean’s mother after the appeal,” says the trainer, “and she said that she never saw Sean as delighted after his ban was reduced! It’s tough on Ben (Jones), who did nothing wrong on him at Cheltenham. But he was Sean’s ride. And it’s nice that both of them have had big days on him.”

Haiti Couleurs’ progression has been relentless. Only just beaten by Path D’Oroux in the second of his two point-to-points for Harley Dunne, Rebecca Curtis first saw him at the Tattersalls Cheltenham sale in January 2022.

“I loved him from the beginning,” she says. “Right from day one. I loved him as an individual. People weren’t gone on Dragon Dancer as a sire, but I loved him as a racehorse. And he was impressive in the videos of his point-to-points, the way that he travelled, the way that he jumped.”

She bought him for £68,000, a figure that he has already surpassed in prize money won. And he could add significantly to his prize money haul tomorrow, with €270,000 up for grabs for the winner of the Irish National.

Rebecca Curtis is no stranger to success in Ireland. In March 2016, she won a novices’ hurdle at Navan with Mystical Knight, and the following month, she took Irish Cavalier back to the Punchestown Festival. Second in the Grade A novices’ handicap chase at the Punchestown Festival a year earlier, the Aussie Rules gelding went one better in 2016, keeping on well to land the Grade A Guinness Handicap Chase.

She has never before had a runner in the Irish Grand National though. Never had a runner at Fairyhouse. Actually, she hasn’t had a runner in Ireland since 2019.

“It’s more difficult now than it used to be,” she says. “There was Covid, and now there’s Brexit. There’s so much paperwork, bloods to be taken, boxes to be ticked. But I love coming over to Ireland. Everyone is so helpful, and it’s no distance. We’re about six minutes from Fishguard. We’re closer to Wexford than we are to most British racecourses!”

Haiti Couleurs is not travelling alone. Ben Solo runs in the novices’ handicap hurdle today. Idefix De Ciergues runs in the two-mile-six-furlong handicap hurdle tomorrow. Pats Fancy goes in the three-mile handicap chase tomorrow. They are not travelling without hope either.

“Pats Fancy has little chance on current form,” says his trainer. “But he had a long time off and he’s coming back to form now. He’s well handicapped on his old form, and he could go well.”

Haiti Couleurs could go well too in the Irish Grand National. All the work has been done.

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