Rebecca Curtis' Haiti Couleurs is all set for the DRF

The Dublin Racing Festival is perfect for Haiti Couleurs - win, lose or draw

By Ben Linfoot

Horse Racing

Wed January 28, 2026 · 4d ago

Ben Linfoot looks at Britain's record in the Paddy Power Irish Gold Cup this week with Haiti Couleurs all set to fly the flag for the raiders at Leopardstown on Saturday.

You can count on one pair of hands the number of British-trained horses that have gone over to Leopardstown for the Grade 1 Paddy Power Irish Gold Cup in the last 15 years.

There was Nicky Richards’ Money Trix in 2010 and 2011, with a best position of sixth. Also in 2011, Nick Mitchell’s The Listener, then 12, went back to try and reclaim former glories but could only manage seventh. In 2014 Tidal Bay was second to Last Instalment for Paul Nicholls, faring by far the best of the Brits since stablemate Neptune Collonges’ victory in 2009. Jonjo O’Neill tried his hand with More Of That (fell) and Minella Rocco (unseated) in 2017, the latter falling on his return a year later. The mare La Bague Au Roi was fifth for Warren Greatrex in 2020. Frodon, the last British-trained horse to have a go, was beaten 21 lengths in seventh in 2022.

It wasn’t always this way.

British trainers won eight of the first nine renewals from its inception in 1987, helped by Jodami’s hat-trick for Peter Beaumont, while Robert & Sally Alner’s The Listener and Nicholls’ Neptune Collonges took the British winning number to 10 following a mini renaissance in 2008-09.

2008 Hennessy Cognac Irish Gold Cup Chase

Either side of all of that Willie Mullins has won the race 14 times and such has been his dominance since the weekend was repackaged as the Dublin Racing Festival that British trainers have all but stopped trying to beat him on his own patch.

On the one hand, you can see why. It wouldn’t make sense to bottom your Gold Cup challenger six weeks out from the big day, what with the travel and the formidable opposition in mind.

But on the other hand, it all makes perfect sense. Horses travel overseas all the time. You want to be facing the best opposition. And if British trainers want to close the gap to Ireland at the Cheltenham Festival then perhaps more trips to the DRF should be forthcoming over the next few years.

After all, the evidence is there that a Grade 1 tune-up at the DRF a month and a half before the Festival is exactly the sort of preparation you should be having before the biggest meeting of the season.

Just look at the number of Cheltenham Festival winners that had their last run at the DRF since the inaugural weekend at Leopardstown in 2018:

2018 – 7 winners
2019 – 2 winners
2020 – 3 winners
2021 – 10 winners
2022 – 5 winners
2023 – 9 winners
2024 – 11 winners
2025 – 7 winners

That’s 54 Cheltenham winners in eight years. Of course, that man Mullins is responsible for more than half of those; 29, in fact, including seven in 2024 when he took his DRF-Cheltenham dominance to ridiculous new levels, and there’s no getting away from the fact that this is his era and that he accentuates the value of running at Leopardstown.

But, getting back to the Cheltenham Gold Cup specifically, doesn’t it make sense that a Grade 1 preparation six weeks from the big day is seriously outperforming Grade 2 trials in races like the Cotswold Chase and the Denman Chase?

And for all of Mullins’ dominance, he’s far from the only one who has preferred this method of preparation.

We only have to look at the Cheltenham Gold Cup winners that ran in the Irish Gold Cup in recent years.

In 2014 Jim Cullotty’s Lord Windermere won the Cheltenham Gold Cup having finished sixth in the Irish version. In 2017 Jessica Harrington’s Sizing John won both races. In 2021 Henry de Bromhead’s Minella Indo was fourth at the DRF before he won at Cheltenham. And then last year Gavin Cromwell’s Inothewayurthinkin repeated the ‘4th at the DRF before winning the Cheltenham Gold Cup’ trick.

Mullins won both races with the brilliant Galopin Des Champs in 2023 and 2024 and he landed the Irish Gold Cup hat-trick last year before finishing second at Cheltenham.

No wonder he’s the 5/4 favourite again this weekend.

But now could well be the time to take him on. He’s 10 now, with 19 steeplechases under his belt. He had a setback earlier in the season that made him miss his John Durkan prep. He wasn’t at his brilliant best on his return at Leopardstown over Christmas in the Savills Chase when only third to Affordale Fury. Testing conditions (and even on a top draining track like Leopardstown they will surely be testing reading Tuesday's weather update) could really challenge the legs that have been there and done it all.

Galopin Des Champs on his way to victory in another Irish Gold Cup

Taking all of this into account, it looks an astute bit of placing from Rebecca Curtis to travel over to the Irish Gold Cup with Haiti Couleurs, around a 7/1 chance on Saturday and double that for the Boodles Cheltenham Gold Cup in March.

Indeed, it looks the perfect prep.

We know how well he handles Cheltenham with his 2/2 record at the track, including a Festival win in last year’s National Hunt Chase, so a Cotswold Chase run out wouldn’t have done much for him.

We know he’s one of the strongest stayers around, too, with three victories in excess of 3m5f in that National Hunt Chase, the Irish Grand National and most recently in the Welsh National.

And we know he can travel to Ireland and thrive after that Fairyhouse success last April.

What we don’t know is whether he has the class to keep tabs with Grade 1 chasers over three miles. It’s fair to draw a line through his only previous attempt at such a task, his Betfair Chase effort filed in the ‘Too Bad To Be True’ drawer and perhaps it was too soon after his Newbury comeback win 16 days earlier.

But Leopardstown looks sure to benefit him. Three miles on a flat, galloping, left-handed track on testing ground against bona fide Grade 1 opposition from Ireland.

A huge prize in its own right, the dream for Curtis will be for Haiti Couleurs to go and win it under Sean Bowen. If Galopin isn’t at his best again, who knows, he could well do.

Yet history tells us defeat here is no barrier to Cheltenham Gold Cup success. At the very least it could sharpen him up significantly, six weeks out from tackling 3m2f and a bit up the hill at Cheltenham.

It’s a path rarely trodden by the British-trained horses these days. But if Haiti Couleurs shows the way with success, either at the DRF or at Cheltenham, perhaps more will follow. Judging by the numbers, it looks a journey well worth travelling.

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