Haiti Couleurs wins at Cheltenham

Rebecca Curtis keeping faith with Haiti Couleurs

By Sporting Life

Horse Racing

Sun November 23, 2025 · 1M ago

Rebecca Curtis is keeping the faith with Haiti Couleurs despite his no-show at Haydock on Saturday.

The eight-year-old was sent off at 3/1 under champion jockey Sean Bowen in the Grade 1 Betfair Chase but the writing was on the wall a long way from home as he became detached.

Bowen opted to pull-up before the fourth-last fence and his trainer is inclined to put the low-key run down to Haiti Coeleurs having a tough race when winning on his seasonal return over hurdles at Newbury on November 22.

“He’s fine, it was an absolute no-show for him," Curtis said on Racing RV on Sunday.

“As you saw, he was beaten as soon as the tapes went down and didn’t turn up at all. I nearly knew traveller there (to Haydock), he’s a horse that gets really revved up and sweaty but he was very quiet going there.

“Look, he just had an off-day. I don’t think it was anything to do with the grade of race or ability. And he ran at Newbury only two and a half weeks earlier, Sean didn’t hit him and we were thinking he had an easy-ish race but he obviously didn’t and it’s taken a lot out of him.

“We think he puts so much into his racing, he needs plenty of time in between which he didn’t get so we’ll put a line through that.

“I know he’s still a good horse, we’ll get it right the next day.

“I do actually fancy the Welsh National for him, which is another five or so weeks ago. He hasn’t had a hard race, if we can freshen him up and get him back to his best, then that will be an option.”

Haiti Couleurs was pushed out to 66/1 by Sky Bet and Paddy Power for the Cheltenham Gold Cup in March.

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