Welsh trainer Rebecca Curtis will swerve this weekend’s Cheltenham Trials with her Gold Cup contender Haiti Couleurs and instead plans to jump in at the deep end in the upcoming Dublin Racing Festival.
In a significant boost for next week’s two-day Leopardstown event worth €2 million in prize money, Haiti Couleurs will take on the triple-winner Galopin Des Champs and other home stars in the Paddy Power Irish Gold Cup.
It is another plucky move by Curtis, who memorably sent her stable star to Fairyhouse last Easter and scooped a famous Irish Grand National victory. The former Cheltenham Festival winner entered the Cheltenham Gold Cup reckoning by defying a monster weight to land last month’s Welsh National at Chepstow.
Haiti Couleurs is a general 14-1 shot in “Blue Riband” betting and is one of a trio of major British contenders for Cheltenham alongside Jango Baie and Grey Dawning. The latter is set to line up in Saturday’s Cotswold Chase, while Jango Baie could wait for Newbury’s Denman Chase next month.
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Curtis, however, is keen to take on the best of the Irish on their home patch. Likely opposition also includes the reigning Cheltenham champion Inothewayurthinkin and Affordale Fury, who landed the Savills over course and distance at Christmas.
“We’ve decided to go to Ireland. It’s a big ask but we want to give it a go. We felt the Cotswold comes a week too early. There’s the Denman Chase as well, but I just felt if we were going to step him up in grade for the Gold Cup, then why not try him in something like that.
“He deserves to go there. He’s been good in handicaps, but he needs to find a little bit more. It’s worth a shot to see where we are. The style of running might suit him over there. They might let him off and he can ensure it’s a good stamina test,” she told the Racing Post.
Haiti Couleurs was cut to as low as 8-1 by some firms for the Leopardstown contest which highlights day one of the Dublin Racing Festival on Saturday week. Topping lists is Galopin Des Champs, winner for the last three years, and bidding to emulate Florida Pearl as a four-time winner.
The last British-trained winner of the Irish Gold Cup was the Paul Nicholls-trained Neptune Collonges in 2009.
A cross-channel headline act is a significant boost for the festival, which in recent years has seen a surge in the number of British race fans. Up to 40 per cent of attendance over the two days has been estimated by Leopardstown officials as having travelled across the Irish Sea.
The first Dublin Racing Festival took place in 2018, although La Bague Au Roi a year later remains the sole cross-channel trained winner of a Grade One race. Madara was a winning visitor in 2024 when just three British-based horses travelled.
There has been a corresponding lack of Irish representation at Cheltenham’s “Trials Day” fixture – the last date at Prestbury Park before the biggest meeting of all in March – but that might change on Saturday.
Grey Dawning and last year’s winner, L’Homme Presse, could face a trio of Irish hopefuls in the Cotswold Chase after a handful of entries were left in the Grade Two contest at Monday’s latest acceptance stage.
Jimmy Mangan’s Spillane’s Tower, Stellar Story, and the former dual-Stayers’ Hurdle champion Flooring Porter remain in the race in which Capodanno in 2024 is the only Irish winner in over two decades.
That same year Mullins landed the Unibet Hurdle with Lossiemouth and this time he may be represented by the 100-1 Triumph Hurdle hero Poniros. He is in line for a first start since finishing out of the money at Royal Ascot last summer.
The Grade Two contest, though, is set to feature an intriguing clash between the first two in the betting for Champion Hurdle glory in March: Sir Gino and The New Lion. Despite that, the Poniros team appear to favour taking them on.
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“There are two ways of looking at it, we can go to Cheltenham and run at a track he has won around before and there might only be four or five runners – or his other option is the Irish Champion Hurdle at the Dublin Racing Festival,” said Seán Graham, spokesman for owner Tony Bloom.
“That will probably be just as hard a race, if not harder, and there’ll likely be more runners at Leopardstown as well. I think if he works well enough [on Tuesday], we’ll probably be going to Cheltenham,” he added.
Tuesday’s Irish racing action is in Down Royal where Co Dublin trainer Karl Thornton presents punters with a quandary.
Both his runners in a handicap chase, Shanroe Act and Shanroe Nancy, haven’t raced over fences before. Shanroe Act did however land a gamble over flights at Fairyhouse last week off a hurdles mark of 76. He runs off the same figure here and a decent round of jumping could make him hard to beat.
Diamond Dollar is 15lbs higher for an easy win last time in the concluding handicap chase. The Charles Byrnes runner is sure to attract interest, although conceding 12lbs to bottomweight Duffys Hodey might be a stiff task.
Philip Rothwell’s runner won over fences at Limerick during Christmas and is 12lbs higher in the ratings for that. However, as a hurdles winner off 103, and over this longer trip, Duffys Hodey looks a major player.
