'Absolute nonsense' to claim Haiti Couleurs was out of his depth in Betfair Chase

Don't write off Haiti Couleurs. That was the message from Rebecca Curtis after the chaser who had looked potentially Britain's best Gold Cup hope "didn't show up" at Haydock on Saturday.

Her Irish Grand National winner is now a best-priced 66-1 for the Cheltenham showpiece, having trailed the field throughout in the Betfair Chase and been pulled up four fences from home by Sean Bowen, who reported he was never travelling.

But the trainer does not believe it was the step up to Grade 1 company that found out the eight-year-old, who won the National Hunt Chase at the Cheltenham Festival last season.

"I don't put it down to anything to do with grade of race or ability," she said on Sunday. "I think it was just purely that, for whatever reason, he didn't show up.

"I knew from the start. Normally he'd be revving at the bit to try to get to the front and he'd be winging fences, but he didn't do any of that yesterday. It wasn't him at all.

"You can hear people say, 'He's just a handicapper' but that's absolute nonsense – it was nothing to do with ability yesterday, it just wasn't his day."

Rebecca Curtis: "It just wasn't his day" Credit: Edward Whitaker (racingpost.com/photos)

Haiti Couleurs had won a hurdle race at Newbury 16 days before the Betfair Chase and Curtis fears that may have taken its toll. 

"I'm going to get a vet to do bloods, tracheal washes, back, everything, and maybe something will show up, but that definitely wasn't the normal Haiti Couleurs, so we can't take anything out of that race," she said.

"We maybe ran him back too soon. We didn't think he had a hard race at Newbury, but he puts everything into his races and he'd had a gallop at Ffos Las not long before that run as well. That's a lot for a horse like him in a month. 

"It's a shame we haven't taken anything out of yesterday as to the ceiling of his ability. We'll freshen him up and see where we go."

Asked when Haiti Couleurs might be seen out next, the trainer said: "He'll probably get an entry next week in the Welsh National, but he definitely won't run for a month or six weeks, maybe more, we'll just see how he is."

Kempton still the aim for Il Est Francais  

Last year's Ladbrokes King George VI Chase runner-up Il Est Francais remains on course for a return to Kempton despite being pulled up at Ascot on Saturday.

Tom George, who has taken over training him from son Noel and Amanda Zetterholm, admitted on Sunday: "It wasn't the day we were looking for. A lot of head-scratching goes in with him, trying to work out exactly what's what.

Il Est Francais: "He's had blips all the way through his career"Credit: Mark Cranham (racingpost.com/photos)

"He's fine this morning. He's had blips all the way through his career and I think we have to carry on. I chatted with Noel and Amanda this morning, and we've just got to carry on, as we did last year, and hope everything falls the right way.

"Four weeks before the King George last year he pulled up. Hopefully, we'll get him back to Kempton in the same form he was in last year. I think we've just got to keep our heads down, puff our chests out and carry on. We'll probably do a few different things training-wise with him, but we've just got to keep going the same as last year."

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