YOU have to back yourself to make an impact in this game, but doing so while feeling the pressure of your quietest season in 14 years makes that all the tougher.
Rebecca Curtis isn’t the type of character to lie down, though, and put her money where her mouth is to conjure up a noticeable turnaround this season.
Having trained just eight winners during the 2022/’23 campaign and 10 a season later, the current tally for 2024/’25 for the Pembrokeshire handler stands at a much healthier 20. She doesn’t look to be done with by any means either in a campaign that could get so much better this weekend.
Standout statistics in the current season’s figures are an elevated 20% strike rate (up from 9% and 10% in each of the previous four seasons) and by far her biggest prize money haul in five years. For context, the current figure of just over £220,000 is more than double the 2022/’23 return of a little more than £95,000.
As we catch up, just as three of her last six runners have managed to come home in front, it could hardly be a better time for her string to be in top form as she travels to Fairyhouse this weekend with a team of six runners.
The one that matters most, unquestionably, is long-range BoyleSports Irish Grand National favourite Haiti Couleurs, who became Curtis’ sixth Cheltenham Festival winner when capturing the newly-revamped National Hunt Chase.
It says something about how the wheel is now back turning once more for the Welsh trainer that last month’s Cheltenham strike was her first major-race success since Lisnagar Oscar’s 50/1 shock in the 2020 Stayers’ Hurdle.
“I think we’re starting to build a nicer team of horses again, and that’s through some really supportive owners,” Curtis says of her yard’s revival.
“In the last couple of years, we spent a lot of money, time and effort on the yard. Last summer, in particular, we completely redid our gallops. There’s a really deep surface there now, it’s almost very Irish-style. It’s probably as deep as Willie Mullins’, and I never intended to have it that way when I was first starting out 17 years ago. I wouldn’t have known much about Willie’s gallops then!
“If you look at our round gallop now, it’s very similar to his in size and there are similarities with the way we work them. The sand we have is different to what we used to have and it puts a great base in them. I think it’s made a great difference to the fitness of our horses this season.”
Bouncing back
Having sent out a career-high 45 winners in the 2014/’15 season in Britain, a spell in which the Paul Townend-ridden Irish Cavalier struck at the Cheltenham Festival, surviving quiet times come with their own obvious challenges.
“It’s not easy,” says Curtis, “but it is a case of horsepower. I think that finding the nice horses is possible, it’s more a case of getting the owner to pay for them. I struggled getting new people in, and getting people to spend money. You’re hoping that once you get results again, that it gives confidence to everyone - including your existing owners - to invest with you.
“Winning at Cheltenham meant a lot. It’s just amazing to have a few nice horses again; that’s what we’ve been lacking, really. Getting a few more owners and a few better quality horses. It’s nice when you do have one that can take you there again.”
Has this season rekindled any love for training that might have been chipped away at in previous seasons?
“It has, I think, but it’s not just for me; it’s about your staff and owners too. It gives everyone a boost of confidence again. It gets you back enjoying the game because it can be hard. I’m not saying I ever don’t enjoy it, even when times are hard, but it’s a lot easier when things are right.
“A season like this is what we needed, a really good year that included a Cheltenham Festival winner. An Irish Grand National winner would be good too! Hopefully, this season will allow us to build to better again.”
When looking for that necessary horsepower, Curtis has often cast her net out to the Irish point-to-point fields.
Haiti Couleurs, who now carries the colours of the Brizzle Boys Partnership (a group featuring James Conyers, David McDermott and Simon Prowing), went unsold at €2,800 as a store before placing in a point-to-point for Harley Dunne and heading to Wales for £68,000. That looks like money well spent after scooping the lion’s share of £100,000 at Cheltenham.
Pointing success
Lisnagar Oscar cost £105,000 after a wide-margin win between the flags on debut for Denis Fitzgerald, the stable’s 2014 RSA Chase hero O’Faolains Boy was a point-to-point winner for Trevor Horgan before his £100,000 sale, while Curtis’ 2012 National Hunt Chase scorer Teaforthree had previously landed a point-to-point for Thomas Barry (and finished third in a pointers’ bumper for Mick Winters) ahead of his £20,000 purchase.
Even the yard’s Ascot Grade 2 winner Bigbadjohn won an Irish point-to-point and bumper for Garrett Power before switching stables privately.
“I do like a lot of the French-breds with those pedigrees, but, for me, I prefer to stick with what I know and we’ve had a lot of luck with the Irish point-to-pointers,” says the four-time Grade 1-winning trainer.
“You typically have a handle on the sires you’re dealing with and where they’ve come from, things like that. I’d watch the videos and do my bit of homework from here. That’s not to say I wouldn’t buy French; I probably would with the right agent.
“Actually, when it comes to Haiti, I was told not to buy him! It was said to me at the time that his sire, Dragon Dancer, hadn’t done much and to leave him be, but you can’t listen to everyone too. I’ve always thought the Irish pointers fit our style very well too. A lot of our better horses have ended up being staying types, whether that be over hurdles or fences.”
Could the store sales be a part of her recruitment approach on the back of a strong campaign?
“I do love the stores and I suppose a long-term plan would be to get some more young horses, but - for me at the moment - I think I need the type of horse that you can get more instant results with in the autumn,” she says, currently overseeing a string of around 20 horses.
“I’d be looking more towards five-year-old point-to-point winners, possibly three or four between now and May.”
Stunning setting
Curtis, who rode at international level for the Welsh junior show jumping team in her early equestrian forays, trains in a stunning corner of Wales that has its own private beach for her string to take advantage of the sea water and air.
With that location, however, comes long journeys for horses and owners to make to and from her picturesque base. For example, Haiti Couleurs faced a 528km round trip to strike Cheltenham gold last month.
“We are where we are and people go on about where we train, saying it’s miles away, but I think wherever you’re based, there’ll be a lot of travelling over here,” says Curtis, who had previous stints working in America for Richard Mandela and Dan Hendricks.
“Lucinda Russell is making it work from Scotland, and the likes of Philip Hobbs and Johnson White are all the way down in Minehead. That’s in the middle of nowhere too. Everyone needs to travel and it’s never affected the running of our horses. We’ve gone all the way up to Ayr, a 12-hour journey, and won the Scottish National. It doesn’t impact the owners and it shouldn’t matter to the owners in that case, other than maybe when coming to see them.
“The one thing I will say, though, is that when they do travel, they just love this place. I just wish more people would come down and have a look. It’s actually not too bad!”
The journey from Wales to Ireland is one that Curtis has made successfully in the past, but her six-strong squad for Fairyhouse this weekend represents her first runners on these shores since the 2019 Punchestown Festival (when Drovers Lane was fourth behind Delta Work, Discorama and A Plus Tard in the Grade 1 Champion Novice Chase - that worked out quite the race).
Irish raids
The J.P. McManus-owned Mystical Knight was sent across to win a Navan novice hurdle in March 2016 for the yard, a month before Irish Cavalier captured the €100,000 Guinness Handicap Chase under Jonathan Moore.
“When we have the right horse, we don’t mind coming over,” she says.
“I love going to Ireland. We’re so close to the ferry at Fishguard with where we are. It used to be so easy, hopping in a two-box and heading over to Ireland, but Brexit has made it a lot more difficult. There’s so much paperwork, bloods to be taken and various boxes to tick. It’s not as easy as it used to be, but it won’t stop us. When we were coming over with Haiti, we looked at the programme and it made sense that there were some races that suited our horses, and some decent prize money.”
Curtis isn’t on her own in feeling frustration over the low-key prize money picture for Britain’s day-to-day action.
“It is really hard on that front over here,” she explains. “You’re winning novice races and the owner is getting back £3,000 or £4,000. Even a bumper winner might only return £1,800. It is ridiculous. That doesn’t even pay for a month or two’s training fees, so something has got to change.
“I think we need a big restructure of everything and that seems to be talked about for years and years. Nothing seems to happen. I’ll be honest, I wouldn’t say I’m overly confident that there can be a reshape on the prize money front in the near future.”
Taking home the top prize in Monday’s €500,000 Fairyhouse feature would be quite the tonic for those ills. Could it be taken as a sign of confidence in the camp that the owners reportedly booked a table of 12 in the Fairyhouse restaurant as soon as the weights were published?
“James [Conyers] has actually got a house in Ireland, I think in Donegal, and enjoys his time over there,” says the trainer.
“He was very excited to have a runner in the Irish National, as we all are. Peter Roe has been very good to us from the start, in fairness. As soon as I entered him, he was in touch to make sure he’d be of assistance with anything we needed or any queries. The Irish have always been good, in my experience, from whenever we’ve brought runners over. Punchestown have been very accommodating too.”
Strong claims
Competing off just 6lb higher than his four-and-a-half length win at Cheltenham means Haiti Couleurs could still be extremely attractively handicapped off his Irish mark of 141. A further boost came on Tuesday of this week when it was confirmed that British champion jockey elect Sean Bowen would be free to ride the feature-race favourite after a careless riding suspension picked up at Aintree was reduced from six days to four on appeal.
“Haiti has come out of Cheltenham really well. He had a nice couple of weeks of a break after and has been back in full swing for the last month. I hope he’s as good as we’ve ever had him,” says a quietly-confiden Curtis.
“He did it really well at Cheltenham. Watching him was literally like seeing something unfold in front of you in slow motion. I saw him coming up the hill and thought ‘is that it? Is it all over now?’ He just did it so easily. There’s a bigger ask lying in front of him at Fairyhouse, but he does seem to be progressing nicely. Fingers crossed he is.
“If he can get a nice position early on, which he typically does no matter where he starts, his style of running should really suit him for the Irish National, should it go smoothly. He tends to jump his way to the front. The thing about Haiti is that he stays really well, but I wouldn’t like to call him a slow horse because he’s got a really high cruising speed.
“I hope he’s still on a nice mark, with the way he’s progressing. I was happy enough with what he got for winning last time. I think it could have been worse.”
A first Welsh-trained winner of the Irish Grand National would cap quite the rallying campaign for Rebecca Curtis - a rightful return to the big-race picture after backing herself when the chips were down. The red dragon of Wales might just be set to rise this Easter.
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