Sunday Times 8th February 2026
Newbury billed this “Super Sunday” but the big talk was how the winners would fare in the “Wonder Week” which starts at Cheltenham 30 days on Tuesday. On the face of it all went very much as expected, the first four favourites Sober Glory, A Pai De Nom, Haiti Couleurs and Lulamba all won. As did second favourite Tutti Quanti with a record breaking, all the way victory in the William Hill Hurdle. But beware comparisons.
Because this was the weather day that Noah wanted. Once the winners got on top the losers finished like routed cavalry. Sober Glory won the first by 27 lengths , Tutti Quanti the William Hill by 15. Horses were barely beating 25 mph as they squelched up to the line. Cheltenham will be a different game entirely.
But let’s give credit where it’s due because it was credit earned aplenty. The awaited headline acts were Haiti Couleurs. Wales’s great hope for the Gold Cup, and Lulamba, already hot favourite for the Arkle. Both duly won convincingly, Haiti Couleurs by seven lengths, Lulamba by six and a half. Haiti Couleurs didn’t learn much. But Lulamba did.
For while only the ageing L’Homme Presse of Haiti Couleu’s three rivals kept the Welsh horse any sort of company and never a very serious threat, Lulamba, despite being 4/11 in a six horse field, faced an altogether completer test. What we learned about Haiti Couleur was that trainer Rebecca Curtis has him in rude health and Sean Bowen will have a Gold Cup partner who will gallop all the way. What we learned with Lulamba was that he could cope under pressure. And that’s what he will get at Cheltenham.
There had been precious little of it in his only other two races over fences, the first of them even had a third of the obstacles ruled out because of low sun. Both of these had been for inexperienced novices like him. Yesterday’s Game Spirit Chase had some seasoned rivals and they, especially last year’s winner Master Chewy were keen to serve it up to the ingenue.
Lulamba is a classy, elegant horse of a much finer cut than something like big bold Haiti Couleurs or indeed Master Chewy on whom Sam Twiston Davies set off as if desperate to catch the last train home. This was no place for a show pony and Lulamba was competent rather than spectacular in his fencing, one long stretch at the first on the far side and rather awkward at the seventh. De Boinville was having to give him an in-race tutorial and for several moments running towards the straight the exam seemed to straining the pupil.
Because Twiston Davies had revved the pace up to a surely suicidal 34 mph, Saint Segal and Calico were going with him and De Boinville’s arms were pushing for Lulamba to hang in to the battle. But hang in he did. Master Chewy paid the penalty. Saint Segal was still there at the second last but by then Lulamba was well in command and can go to Cheltenham having learned a lot.
What was particularly impressive was that while he was not always ideally on stride at his fences, he never looked like galloping straight in or diving over. “Yes, he knows where his feet are,” said a muddy De Boinville walking back to the weighing room. The Game Spirit Chase as a route to the Arkle is something Nicky Henderson did with both Altior and Sprinter Sacre in their novice seasons. They are the highest of benchmarks but Lulamba is certainly on his way.
Cheltenham, Cheltenham, that was all the talk in the winners’ enclosure as the horses came back in the rain. A Pai De Nom will now represent the Skeltons in the Martin Pipe, the final race of the festival, after his success in the Handicap Hurdle. After Tutti Quanti’s all the way win under a record 12 stone top weight in the William Hill Hurdle there was excitement enough for the talk to be of the Champion Hurdle.
It’s true that the to make all the running in one of the most competitive handicaps of the season is a great achievement but these were freak conditions, in-rhythm front runners are much favoured and both Paul Nicholls and Harry Cobden were a bit cautious about a Champion bid.
Cobden had found it harder to control his compliments after Sober Glory had scored in many way the day’s most spectacular victory in the first almost two seconds quicker than Tutti Quanti. Nobody knows why Sober Glory blotted his copybook badly at Sandown in December, his only failure in seven attempts but he is a horse on the march. He is 20-1 in the Supreme Novices at Cheltenham. Mind you it will be much better weather by then. Or will it?