Grand National 2026 - Can Haiti Couleurs Complete the Grand National Treble?
There is one storyline heading into the 2026 Grand National that stands apart from the Willie Mullins records and the jockey booking drama - and it centres on a Welsh trainer, a horse with a remarkable 2025 behind him, and the possibility of history being made at Aintree on April 11.
Haiti Couleurs, trained by Rebecca Curtis and ridden by champion jockey Sean Bowen, won both the Irish Grand National at Fairyhouse and the Welsh Grand National at Chepstow in 2025.
Victory at Aintree would complete a clean sweep of all three Grand Nationals - something no horse has ever done in the modern era.
It is a genuinely remarkable story, and one that had punters backing Haiti Couleurs into ante-post favourite territory earlier in the season.
Then came Cheltenham - Haiti Couleurs was pulled up in the Gold Cup on 13 March, and the market reacted accordingly.
He drifted in the Grand National betting with plenty of punters understandably questioning whether the big day had passed him by.
But it is worth asking whether the Gold Cup form should really count against him at all.
The Cheltenham Gold Cup and the Aintree Grand National are very different races.
One is a flat-out 3 miles 2½ furlongs championship chase over conventional fences, the other is a unique four-and-a-quarter-mile test of stamina, jumping adaptability, and raw staying power over the most distinctive obstacles in racing.
Horses have flopped at Cheltenham and run career-best races at Aintree, and there is a reasonable argument that being pulled up at the Festival - rather than emptying out over the line - actually tells us very little about what Haiti Couleurs will do in the National.
Curtis, based in west Wales, has quietly built a strong record at the highest level of jump racing.
To have a horse in contention for this kind of history is no accident, and there is every reason to think she has managed Haiti Couleurs carefully with Aintree as the primary target all season.
For Bowen, this is personal.
As reigning champion jockey, the Grand National is the one major prize missing from an otherwise impressive CV.
He has the class to win it, and he now has a horse with the credentials to deliver it - at around 16/1, Haiti Couleurs looks an each-way bet worth making.
History is there for the taking.
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