Haiti Couleurs Delights With Newbury Comeback Win
Haiti Couleurs enjoyed the perfect tune-up for a prospective tilt at the Betfair Chase when making a winning reappearance in the Pertemps Network Handicap Hurdle at Newbury.
Rebecca Curtis' Cheltenham Festival and Irish Grand National hero was dispatched at 17-2 in the hands of Sean Bowen for his return over the smaller sized barriers and his endurance came forward in the closing stages, as the champion jockey outbattled his bro James Bowen aboard runner-up Bill Baxter.
Britain's shortest-priced competitor for the Cheltenham Gold Cup, Haiti Couleurs holds an entry for the Coral Gold Cup back at Newbury on November 29, however Curtis is tempted to divert to Haydock a week previously with her star chaser.
Curtis told Sky Sports Racing: "I'm not overly stunned he won as I understood he was really well and had actually enhanced from in 2015.
"I hoped he would run one of those races where you end up in the first 5, however watching him go round I knew he was going to win since of the method he was taking a trip and you understand he remains.
"He ran hurdles off 135 in 2015 and was beaten, however he's won off 10lb higher here, so it appears like he has actually improved."
Haiti Couleurs made a winning return at Newbury (David Davies/PA)
One what comes next, she included: "There's benefits and drawbacks to both races, our main aim was the Coral Gold Cup but it's great to firm here today on the chase track and taking a look at the forecast they are not due too much rain here next week.
"He'll enter into that off top-weight most likely and Dan's (Skelton, and Grey Dawning) ranked higher won't run.
"The Betfair Chase is actually tempting, I understand it's just two and a half weeks away but he's the type of horse you can get away with doing that with and he will be fresh on Monday morning.
"I will talk to the owners and decide what they wish to do, but I would be siding that method now. You would hope he might be a Gold Cup horse, but I'm not going to push him down that road if he's not to that level.
"I enjoy the method he has enhanced and you have actually seen how hard he is and he stays so well. He can go an excellent gallop and those are all the important things you require for a Gold Cup, so we will see, it's exciting."
Haiti Couleurs may not be going back to Newbury on 'Hennessy day' however one who could is Harry Derham's Jackie Hobbs after making a winning hurdles debut in the CSP Mares' Novices' Hurdle as the 13-8 favourite.
A useful bumper entertainer last term, she was handed a quote of 20-1 by Paddy Power for the Mares' Novices' Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival, however in the instant she could object to the Listed Play Coral "Racing-Super-Series" Mares' Novices' Hurdle.
Derham stated: "She was excellent and I believed it was quite a deep race. The important things I was most delighted about was how well she leapt and she stays 2 miles well, so Paul (O'Brien) desired to make plenty of use of her.
"He said she had a real good blow from the back of 3 out, so you want to believe she would enhance plenty and she's a really good mare and one to eagerly anticipate.
"Returning to Newbury is a certain choice as long as she comes out of this all ideal and remains in good form - we would certainly consider it.
"It would be good to end up in a race like the Jane Seymour at Sandown later on in the year, but it's great to get over the very first difficulty today and it will be good making strategies with her from here."
Anthony Honeyball's Lord Baddesley (6-4) got home in superb isolation to win the Daily Racing Boosts At BetVictor Handicap Chase, while the concluding British Horse Society Open National Hunt Flat Race went the method of Chris Gordon's 13-8 favourite Bass Hunter.