Welsh racing got everything it asked for in its Christmas stocking.
A succession of stunning top-level victories flowed across the festive season, with Grade 1 glory accompanied by a famous home win in the country’s biggest race.
In most years it would be hard to top the magnificent triumph of jockey Ben Jones in the King George VI Chase at Kempton Park, the highlight of the Boxing Day offering.
But Sean Bowen and Rebecca Curtis pushed them hard by taking the Coral Welsh Grand National in glorious style.
Jones captured Kempton’s richest race in amazing fashion on board The Jukebox Man. Ben Pauling’s charge was one of four horses to jump the last fence alongside each other, and for most of the run-in it looked as Bowen was going to prevail as he brought last year’s winner Banbridge with a beautifully-timed challenge.
But Jones galvanised The Jukebox Man for one last effort, and he hit the front in the final two strides to deny Banbridge and Bowen by a nose. Gaelic Warrior was a nose back in third.
The horse owned by Premier League legend Harry Redknapp is now as short as 8-1 for the Cheltenham Gold Cup in March.
Bowen may have been left deflated by Banbridge’s heartbreaking defeat, but 24 hours laster he was on top of the world after bagging the Welsh National on the back-to-form Haiti Couleurs.
Curtis’s charge had been pulled up in the Grade 1 Betfair Chase at Haydock in November, and was later found to be under the weather. But at Chepstow he was back to his swaggering best, lumping 11st 13lb to a heroic victory which has put the Gold Cup firmly back in his sights.
Haiti Couleurs led for the final two-and-a-half miles of the marathon contest, stretching the will and stamina of his rivals one by one. The persistent Deafening Silence finally gave way before the second-last fence, and the final challenger was O’Connell, who looked at one stage likely to hit the front only to be repelled by Bowen and his willing partner on the run-in.
Haiti Couleurs ends the calendar year with a CV that reads wins in the Welsh and Irish Nationals, plus a success at the Cheltenham Festival.
Jones, meanwhile, followed up his King George win by bagging another major prize at Kempton as Mambonumberfive finished strongly to land the valuable Grade 2 Wayward Novices’ Chase. A visit to Cheltenham in March to tackle the Arkle Chase awaits.
There was significant Welsh success elsewhere. Jack Tudor rode a Boxing Day treble at Aintree for three different trainers – Olly Murphy, David Pipe and the combination of Joel
Parkinson and Sue Smith – while Pembrokeshire handler David Rees bagged his third winner of the season when Esperti followed up a recent Ffos Las win by scoring at Fontwell.
James Davies was also among the winners at the card when Half Hoping struck in a bumper.
And while Sam Thomas was out of luck with Welsh National favourite Jubilee Express, he did bag a winner at Wincanton courtesy of Alfie’s Princess in a mares’ chase.
Our opening fixture of 2026 is Friday 30th January. The first race is 1.20pm
