'This really tops things off' - Sean Bowen's dream run continues as he guides Haiti Couleurs to record weight-carrying win

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Haiti Couleurs defied the largest weight in Coral Welsh Grand National history with a courageous display to keep the race on home soil for Sean Bowen and Rebecca Curtis.

The eight-year-old capped an incredible calendar year, which includes success at the Cheltenham Festival and in the Irish Grand National, to hold off allcomers under 11st 13lb.

His win came off a mark of 154, just 1lb lower than future Gold Cup winner Native River defied when carrying topweight of 11st 12lb to victory in 2016.

Bowen played his part in a King George thriller on Friday, beaten only a nose on Banbridge by The Jukebox Man and fellow Welshman Ben Jones, and he ensured this race would go down in the history books with a ruthless display from the front.

Saturday’s race was unique by its own standards due to the unseasonably better ground, yet the 5-1 shot ensured it remained an attritional test of stamina by setting a strong pace in a leading group with Monbeg Genius and 9-2 favourite Jubilee Express.

As the market leader’s jumping proved costly, Haiti Couleurs leapt to the front at the end of the first circuit and produced a faultless round of jumping in a lap of Wales’s premier racecourse.

Tristan Durrell, who produced Panic Attack to win the Coral Gold Cup a month earlier, attempted to plunder another big handicap as Deafening Silence led the challenge against Haiti Couleurs in the straight, but he tired into third as Bowen’s mount battled to the line.

O’Connell, for the red-hot West Yorkshire team of Joel Parkinson and Sue Smith, stayed on for second while Livin On Luco took fourth for Philip Hobbs, who won the race with Dream Alliance in 2009, and Johnson White.

The fairytale for Haiti Couleurs could be far from finished. He was back on track after his Betfair Chase flop just a month ago and was cut to 14-1 (from 20s) for the Grand National and 33-1 (from 50s) for the Gold Cup with Paddy Power.

• 'It's hard to argue the performance was not that of an elite chaser' - how far can Haiti Couleurs go after another National win? 

Curtis said: “I’m absolutely delighted to get him back because I was upset after Haydock, but he’s still a very good horse. We were hard and aggressive there.

“He’s back to his best, which is brilliant. Sean had to go to the front because he couldn’t hold him and when he’s like that, then he’s at his best. It’s brilliant and I’m thrilled for my owners who have been brilliant with me.

“That’s amazing. I’m Welsh, as is Sean and most of the staff. It’s a big prestigious race which we’ve always wanted to win. We went close with Teaforthree and it’s nice to finally do it.

“The Irish National was brilliant. I can’t say one’s better than the other, but what’s nice about this is that everyone wrote him off after his last run. Not many people fancied him there but it’s nice to get him back. He’s been an amazing horse.”

A first home-trained winner of the race since Iwilldoit in 2021 concluded an outstanding year for Welsh racing after Champion Hurdle glory on Golden Ace for Lorcan Williams and Ben Jones’s King George success only topped by Bowen’s brilliant year.

Sean Bowen and Haiti Couleurs clear the last en route to winning the Welsh Grand NationalCredit: Alan Crowhurst (Getty Images)

In April, he became Wales’s first champion jump jockey in more than half a century and this was his first success in his home country’s greatest race.

“Winning a Welsh National is what it’s all about,” he said. “I was gutted [after the King George] but this really top things off. To do it on a Welsh horse for Becky is like doing it for family. She used to babysit me when I was little, so this means the world.

“It’s an incredible training performance. I don’t think people will appreciate how good a job she’s done training him to come back from Haydock. He’s gone from pulling up halfway down the back and going nowhere to making all in a Welsh National off topweight.

“You want to win all the big races but in Wales you have the crowd behind you. I’ve finally caught up with my brother James [who won with Raz De Maree in 2017], which is good.”

Jubilee Express was pulled up after five out while the well-backed Uncle Bert was the only faller in the 17-runner line-up. Mr Vango was withdrawn before the race due to the ground.

Read more here:

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