Chepstow Racecourse staged a Coral Welsh Grand National to remember as a bumper crowd savoured dramatic homegrown success for winner, Haiti Couleurs.
A total attendance of 9,425 packed into the Monmouthshire venue for the festive showpiece at the weekend - an increase of 11 per cent on 2024 and the biggest crowd the race has attracted since 2016.
They were rewarded with wild celebrations as the dragon roared loudly - Welsh trainer Rebecca Curtis and Welsh champion jockey Sean Bowen completing a hugely popular local double.
West Wales neighbours in their younger days, Bowen revealed their first team effort together was when Curtis used to be the jockey’s babysitter!
The celebrations continued long after the race, with Bowen congratulated in the winners’ enclosure by fellow Welsh sporting icon Geraint Thomas, who won his own big race - cycling’s Tour de France - back in 2018.
Chepstow Racecourse general manager Luke Admans said:
"To have our biggest crowd for nine years is just really encouraging and shows that Welsh racing is on a real high at the moment.
When you hear the roar of a Chepstow crowd, cheering home a Welsh rider like Sean Bowen, there is no better sound in Welsh sport.
It made for a great day and proves once again how the people of Chepstow, of Monmouthshire, and the whole region are really supportive of this fantastic sporting venue.
We are really grateful to our sponsors, Coral, who have now sponsored the Welsh Grand National for 53 years, which makes it one of the longest running sponsorships in sport."
The star of Curtis’s Pembrokeshire yard, Haiti Couleurs produced a relentless front-running performance to land the biggest prize in the Welsh racing calendar.
The atmosphere crackled long before the tape went up for a race first run in 1895, but it reached fever pitch as Haiti Couleurs powered clear in the closing stages, carrying a hefty 11st 13lb to seal a decisive three-length victory over O’Connell.
For Curtis, training in Newport, Pembrokeshire, and Bowen, born just down the road, it was a victory that resonated far beyond the racecourse, with Welsh pride coursing through Chepstow’s grandstands.
Emotions had been stirred prior to the race with the traditional singing of the Welsh national anthem - Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau - led by Welsh soprano Clara Greening.
Haiti Couleurs was already a proven marathon chaser, having landed the Irish Grand National at Fairyhouse in April, but this was a performance that re-established his class after a disappointing run in the Betfair Chase at Haydock last month.
It also ensured a first Welsh-trained winner of the race since Iwilldoit for Sam Thomas in 2021.
The victory for Bowen bore echoes of Native River’s bold front-running display in 2016, the last time a horse defied such a big weight to win the Welsh National.
Turning for home, Haiti Couleurs still had O’Connell in pursuit, but Bowen’s response was emphatic as his eight-year-old mount galloped relentlessly to the line.
“What a racehorse and what a training performance to get him back from Haydock,” said Bowen in praise of Curtis’s extraordinary effort.
That was just over a month ago and to get him back is just incredible.
It means so much. These are the races you want to win and to do it on a Welsh-trained horse for a Welsh trainer is special.
Becky actually used to babysit me a bit as a kid, so to do it for Becky is a bit like doing it for family, so that was amazing.
It’s unbelievable and it would have been nice to win the King George as well, but I’ll take this.”
Just 24 hours earlier Bowen had endured heartbreak when narrowly denied aboard Banbridge in the King George VI Chase at Kempton, but this first success in the Welsh Grand National proved rich compensation.
In April, he became the first Welsh champion jump jockey in more than 50 years, and this victory represented another milestone in a remarkable season.
“Winning a Welsh National is what it’s all about,” he said.
“It’s an incredible training performance. I don’t think people will appreciate how good a job Becky has done training him to come back from Haydock. He’s gone from pulling up halfway down the back and going nowhere to making all the running in a Welsh National off top weight.
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 as a 16-year-old with Raz De Maree in 2017], which is good.”
Curtis, too, was visibly moved by the reception afforded to her and her horse, with the roar from the packed stands underlining just how much the result meant to Welsh racing.
She was keen to stress how much effort had gone into reviving Haiti Couleurs after his Haydock disappointment.
“I’m absolutely delighted to get him back, I was upset about Haydock and I knew he was still a very good horse,” Curtis said.
He’s done that so well and aggressively today, he outclassed them and was back to his very best. Sean said he had to go to the front as he couldn’t hold him, and when he’s like that, you know he’s back to his best.
I’m Welsh, Sean’s Welsh and most of my staff are and it’s a really prestigious race we have wanted to win for many years. I’m also thrilled for my owners who have been brilliant with me.
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.”
Bookmakers were quick to react, trimming Haiti Couleurs’ odds for both the Grand National at Aintree and the Cheltenham Gold Cup, with comparisons inevitably drawn to Native River, who followed his Welsh National triumph with Gold Cup glory a year later.
This was yet another Welsh Grand National characterised by a fervent crowd, its atmosphere and a stirring home victory – proof that Chepstow’s winter showpiece remains one of the most cherished and vibrant events in British racing.
