Haiti Couleurs made favourite for Coral Gold Cup - but Rebecca Curtis eyes Grade 1 company after winning return

Britain's leading Cheltenham Gold Cup hope Haiti Couleurs stole the show at Newbury with a successful seasonal reappearance over hurdles, a performance that left Rebecca Curtis eyeing a step up to Grade 1 company for her stable star. 

Last season's Cheltenham Festival and Irish Grand National winner was cut to 7-1 (from 10) by Paddy Power for the Betfair Chase at Haydock on November 22 after landing the 3m½f handicap hurdle under champion jockey Sean Bowen, and Curtis is tempted to make a quick return to action with her eight-year-old.

Curtis said: "The Betfair Chase is very tempting and I’m leaning towards that. It’s only two and a half weeks away, but he’s the type of horse you could get away with doing that. We’ll chat with the owners."

Haiti Couleurs delivered a gutsy performance to deny the front-running Bill Baxter, who made a bad blunder at the last hurdle, and was also made 6-1 favourite (from 12) for the Coral Gold Cup back at Newbury on November 29, but the possibility of quick ground could tempt Curtis to consider the Betfair Chase a week earlier.

She said: "There are so many pros and cons to both races, really. Starting off, our main aim was the Coral Gold Cup, but it’s good, good to firm now on the chase track, and looking at the forecast, they’re not due much rain next week."

The Cheltenham Gold Cup was also the subject of conversation in the Newbury winner's enclosure, with Haiti Couleurs as short as 14-1 in some places after his victory, but Curtis is not looking too far ahead for her seven-time winner.

She said: "I hope he’s a Gold Cup horse, but I’m not going to push him down that road if he’s not going to be up to that level. I just love the way he’s improved, and you’ve seen how tough he is. He stays well, and he can go a good gallop, and I think that’s what you need in a Gold Cup.

"I think he's the best I've trained. At Fishers Cross was a good horse, but he had his problems. I know he went to Cheltenham and Aintree for Grade 1s, but they were novices and he never went on afterwards, but this horse has and he’s kept improving."

Curtis was using the Pertemps qualifier as a prep run for Haiti Couleurs before he is switched back to fences, but she realised quite early on in the race that he had every chance of registering a third successive victory.

She added: "I’m not overly surprised he’s won because he was doing well, and I knew he’d improved from last season. I hoped he’d run one of those races where he’d finish in the first five, but watching him go round I knew he’d win."

As well as being cut for this month's Betfair Chase, Haiti Couleurs was trimmed into 12-1 (from 14) for the Grand National.

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