'Horses like him are rare but it's quite nerve-racking - it's the Cheltenham Gold Cup, after all'

In 1990, when the Gold Cup was last won by a Welsh trainer, Rebecca Curtis was just nine years old, fixated entirely on showjumping and with no idea that Sirrell Griffiths, operating around an hour from her childhood home in Pembrokeshire, had just entered racing folklore thanks to the astonishing 100-1 success of Norton's Coin.

Now, Curtis, 45, looks to have a real shot at emulating Griffiths with a remarkable horse of her own in Haiti Couleurs. 

A horse of his calibre makes the long drive to Wales's west coast well worth the hours spent on the M4, and the expansive view of the Irish Sea is a welcome change of scenery as the motorway gives way to narrow country roads. At the end of a series of winding bends and high hedges lies Fforest Farm, the family dairy holding where Curtis grew up and now trains.