'Unbelievable' Easter Windfalls For Ecstatic Owners

Features | 29th April 2025

A Bristol-based syndicate and a racing club from Merseyside were in the money over Easter following “unbelievable” successes over jumps and on the All-Weather.

The Brizzle Boys, who own Cheltenham Festival winning chaser Haiti Couleurs, celebrated a rare British success in the Boyle Sports Irish Grand National at Fairyhouse, scooping a first prize of 270,000 euros to add to the £52,000 they received for his National Hunt Chase heroics in March.

Two days earlier a £100,000 windfall came the way of the Clear Cut Racing Club when their rags to riches gelding Tasever was crowned the Horse of the Year at the climax of Season 12 of the All-Weather Championships.

Featured on Inthepaddock in March, the three pals behind The Brizzle Boys syndicate couldn’t believe their eyes as their Rebecca Curtis-trained eight-year-old Haiti Couleurs became the first British winner of the Irish National since 2014.

Haiti Couleurs, who was brilliantly ridden by newly crowned champion jockey Sean Bowen, suffered a serious injury that kept him off the track for two years soon after he was bought out of the point-to-point field in Ireland, but the Brizzle Boys have been rewarded handsomely for their patience with consecutive high-profile victories.

“You couldn’t make it up,” quipped Simon Prowting, who shares the star chaser with retired lawyer James Conyers and businessman Dave McDermott. “Winning at the Cheltenham Festival was out of this world but to do it again in such a big race in Ireland left us all speechless.

“My heart was pounding three out and watching him cross the line I couldn’t believe what we had just achieved. We’re on the most amazing, emotional journey with this horse and who knows where he’ll take us. The Gold Cup would be the ultimate dream,” he added.

Meanwhile, Tasever, whose unlikely quest to become All-Weather Horse of the Year was also featured on this site, hadn’t won a race in 23 attempts before getting off the mark at Newcastle in November but improved 22lb to a rating of 72 over a productive winter at his favourite track at Gosforth Park.

He finally clinched the coveted title and that valuable prize on the run-up to Easter when his 48 points tally for four wins and six placed runs in the popular Arena Racing Company competition couldn’t be matched. It was an anxious wait for the prize as trainer Pat Morris and his racing club members watched four contenders all fail to upstage the five-year-old in the final week of the season.

“When he didn’t make the placings at Southwell on his last start I thought our chance was gone,” admitted Morris, whose Tasever is the star of a string of only 20 horses. “We’d have been incredibly proud of him whatever happened but to win this is life-changing for a small set-up like ours.

“We’ll give him a well-deserved break now before bringing him back for the next All-Weather season, though I might try him on turf this summer,” added Morris, who bought the horse last year for “small money” before leasing him to the Clear Cut Racing Club.

For both sets of connections, the prospect of further success is very much on the cards.

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