Sean Bowen keen to realise Cheltenham dream for Wales

Sean Bowen has yet to experience the Cheltenham Festival at its most magical. But alongside Rebecca Curtis and her star performer Haiti Couleurs, he might have come across a horse that will take him centre stage on the grandest platform of them all – and one breathing fire into dreams of a first Welsh Gold Cup winner since 1990.

Having risen to prominence as a teenager with Paul Nicholls and gone on to ride for some of the biggest names in both Britain and Ireland on his journey to becoming champion jockey, it is perhaps fitting it is an old friend from the valleys who could provide the defining moment of his career to date.

The Haiti Couleurs story also represents a welcome resurgence in the fortunes of Curtis, who saddled a Festival winner every year between 2012 and 2015 but just one in the intervening 10 years until this year’s Gold Cup hopeful announced his top-class potential in last year’s National Hunt Chase.

Grand National victories both in Ireland and on home soil in Wales were to follow and after Denman Chase victory firmly put the wheels in motion for a date with the blue riband, Bowen has no doubt he can conjure up a giant-slaying performance from the jewel in her small string from the Pembrokeshire coast.

Bowen told the Press Association: “I’ve known Rebecca a long time and she only trains 20 or so horses, so for her to win a Gold Cup would be magical as it normally goes the way of the big trainers. It would be special to win it for her.

“When Rebecca was younger she used to work for dad (Peter Bowen) and when mum and dad would go racing we would be left with whoever was around in the yard at the time and often that was Rebecca – I would say she’s kept us out of trouble plenty of times when we were little.

“She’s a great trainer and has done very well with Haiti Couleurs. Nobody else would have done a better job with him, she has done amazingly and to get him back from pulling up in the Betfair Chase to win a Welsh National shows you just what a brilliant trainer she is.”

Had the hand of fate not intervened then Bowen and Curtis could have been heading into this year’s Festival as a proven and potent combination and one with a championship race already secured.

Together both trainer and jockey are ready to write the next chapter in Welsh Gold Cup history, channelling the might of St David shown by Norton’s Coin in his 100-1 underdog triumph 36 years ago with a horse Bowen feels has all the attributes to finally end his barren run at National Hunt’s showpiece event.

“It would be lovely to ride a Welsh winner of the Gold Cup, the first since Norton’s Coin it would be, and if you are winning Gold Cups it would be even better to be doing it for Wales,” continued Bowen.

“I had to ride for Olly (Murphy) when Haiti won the National Hunt Chase last year and when Lisnagar Oscar won his Stayers’ Hurdle (in 2020) I broke my collar bone the week before, so I’ve missed out on a few Cheltenham winners for Becky, but it would be nice to get some luck for her there now.”

He went on: “I’ve ridden in most of the big races now and had a few big winners, but Cheltenham winners are what you want and Haiti is probably the best chance I have had going into the Festival, albeit it is in the Gold Cup and there are a lot of good horses to try to beat.

“I thought he was impressive in the Denman Chase and he didn’t overexert himself in front which was good as he ended up having an easier race than he probably would have. It was a great prep and now we can look forward to the Gold Cup.”

Haiti Couleurs will be just Bowen’s second ride in the week’s feature event after his fourth-placed finish aboard Noble Yeats in 2023 and while setting the trends in the weighing room in terms of numbers, the 28-year-old is now eager to make his mark on the meetings that can also characterise a rider’s career.

“I would love to retire having been champion jockey, leading rider at the Cheltenham Festival and having won the Gold Cup and Grand National,” added Bowen.

“They are the dreams we all have and you always imagine having your winners at the biggest meetings.

“I’m very lucky that I have had big winners at every festival barring Cheltenham, even at Punchestown and the Dublin Racing Festival – but those Cheltenham winners will be coming.”

Alongside Curtis, helping in his quest to unearth the quality to accompany the quantity are friends, family and a comrade from across the Irish Sea operating at the peak of the sport.

“Things have got better season by season and I’m riding for some great people,” Bowen explained. “Olly is my main trainer and a brilliant trainer.

“I class Olly as a very good friend now. I’m very lucky I get to ride for him among all the other good people.

“I’ve had a good association with Gordon (Elliott) since I was about 20 and that has been a big help in broadening the horizons of the Irish trainers who have used me.

“I’ve ridden plenty of winners for Mickey (Bowen, brother) and he’s only just started training, so to ride winners for those people, they are who you want to be riding winners for as it’s both family and friends and it can make it all that bit more special.”