Haiti Couleurs is on course to run in Saturday's William Hill Denman Chase at Newbury, where he is set to face Nicky Henderson's Jango Baie.
Trainer Rebecca Curtis eventually opted not to take her stable star to Leopardstown for the Dublin Racing Festival and he instead heads to Berkshire for the Grade 2 contest over the best part of three miles.
Haiti Couleurs, winner of the National Hunt Challenge Cup Novices' Handicap Chase at Cheltenham and the Irish Grand National towards the end of last season, has had an in-and-out campaign to this point, landing a handicap hurdle on his Newbury comeback before being pulled-up relatively early when raised to Grade 1 level in Haydock's Betfair Chase on November 22.
He soon got back on track when winning the Coral Welsh Grand National at Chepstow over Christmas and is now a general 12/1 chance for the Cheltenham Gold Cup ahead of this weekend's final prep race.
Haiti Couleurs faces six possible rivals, headed by Jango Baie who is no bigger than 6/1 in the antepost lists for the Gold Cup having finished a close-up third behind The Jukebox Man in the King George VI Chase on his first try at the three at Kempton on Boxing Day (replay below).
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L'Homme Presse is also in the shake-up on Saturday, Venetia Williams' 11-year-old having been runner-up in both starts at Cheltenham so far this year.
The Anthony Honeyball-trained, second-season novice Leave Of Absence has been entered following his head second to Deep Cave in the Howden Silver Cup Handicap Chase at Ascot, while the entries are rounded out by Honeyball stablemate Sam Brown, Master Chewy (Nigel & Willy Twiston-Davies) and Riskintheground (Dan Skelton).
Four horses have won the Newbury race and the Gold Cup in the same year, namely Kauto Star (2007), Denman (2008), Coneygree (2015) and Native River (2018).
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