Bowen and Curtis bag famous home win in Welsh National with Haiti Couleurs
It is seven years and counting since Native River became the last horse trained in Britain to win the Cheltenham Gold Cup, but the beleaguered home team has conceivably emerged from the first two days of the Christmas programme with not one, but two realistic contenders for next year’s race, after Haiti Couleurs put up a magnificent performance to win the Welsh Grand National here under 11st 13lb on Saturday.Or, as Haiti Couleurs’ connections might prefer it, England has a chance with Friday’s King George winner, The Jukebox Man, and Wales has a shout with Haiti Couleurs, who is trained by Rebecca Curtis in Pembrokeshire and ridden by Sean Bowen, the champion jockey, who was born just down the road from her yard.Bowen gave another demonstration on Haiti Couleurs of what is now his trademark ability to seize the initiative in a race and not let go.His mount was a little free behind the pace on the first circuit, and despite his big weight and the distance still left to travel, Bowen did not hesitate to allow him to stride on into the lead.Haiti Couleurs did not see another rival from there, and there were definite echoes of Native River’s front-running performance under a similar burden in this race in 2016, 15 months before his Gold Cup victory, as the eight-year-old powered clear with O’Connell turning for home and then held him at bay with an unflinching gallop from two out.
This was the second “National” win of Haiti Couleurs’ career after his success in the Irish Grand National at Fairyhouse in April, and the initial reaction from bookmakers was to cut his price to complete a Grand National treble at Aintree in the spring,Paddy Power make him a 14-1 chance (from 20-1) for the world’s most famous steeplechase, but he also has a Cheltenham festival win on his record in the National Hunt Challenge Cup last season – a race in which Native River finished second in his novice season – and the 33-1 about Curtis’s gelding for the Gold Cup might not last long if it is confirmed as a target,From Curtis’s point of view, though, talk of Cheltenham and Aintree can wait,Like Bowen, she was winning her “home” National for the first time, and it was an impressive training performance to get Haiti Couleurs back to his relentless best after a disappointing run in the Betfair Chase last time out,“I’m absolutely delighted to get him back, I was upset about Haydock and I knew he was still a very good horse,” Curtis said.
“He’s done that so well and aggressively today, he outclassed them and was back to his very best.Sean said he had to go to the front as he couldn’t hold him, and when he’s like that, you know he’s back to his best.“I’m Welsh, Sean’s Welsh and most of my staff are and it’s a really prestigious race we have wanted to win for many years.”Leicester 12.05 Roi Du Risk 12.
37 Kapamazov 1.12 Casa Loupi 1.47 Two To Tango 2.22 Jhentong Enki 2.57 Heeztheboy (nap) 3.
32 Gentleman TobootCatterick Bridge 12.18 Bravethewaves 12.53 Ballyeaston 1.28 Classical Sting 2.03 Ninna Collina 2.
38 Redbridge Rambler 3.13 CamarrateSouthwell 1.00 Cerelia 1.35 Ziggy’s Angel 2.10 Raging Raj 2.
45 Bowfell 3.20 Hunky Dory 3.50 Sax Appeal 4.20 Toolatetonegotiate (nb) 4.50 Mr NuggetBowen was touched off aboard Banbridge in the thrilling finish to Friday’s King George at Kempton, but a first victory in Saturday’s race was decent compensation for the runaway leader in the National Hunt riders’ title race.
“It means so much,” Bowen said.“These are the races you want to win and to do it on a Welsh-trained horse for a Welsh trainer is special.“Becky actually used to babysit me a bit as a kid, so to do it for Becky is a bit like doing it for family, so that was amazing.It would have been nice to win the King George as well, but I’ll take this.”
US capitalism casts millions of citizens aside, yet Badenoch and Farage still laud it | Phillip Inman
Next month, Donald Trump will welcome a poverty-stricken family to peruse his plans for a $300m glitzy state ballroom in the White House. The event will be staged as part of National Poverty in America Awareness Month, the time every year when charities document the number of US residents surviving on low incomes.Of course, the president will do no such thing, preferring to summon the press to watch him rub shoulders with the billionaire class as he did at last month’s black tie dinner for the Saudi ruler and his entourage.Trump can be expected to ignore calls for policies to reduce poverty and to dismiss the annual awareness campaign, leaving him unencumbered by any guilt that past presidents might have felt looking in the mirror and seeing Louis XIV starring back at them.US poverty levels matter in the UK and across continental Europe because the rising level of poverty in the States – a trend that dates back to the turn of the century – is the direct result of a particular form of capitalism that increasingly popular rightwing parties say should be adopted
No longer ‘unloved’: retailers investing more in physical stores, UK data shows
UK retailers are investing more in bricks and mortar, with shopping centres and food stores leading a revival, according to research.Retailers and property investors are reallocating capital back into physical stores, according to the property group Knight Frank.The switch represents a fillip for high streets and shopping centres after a difficult decade, which culminated in the shutdown of most stores during pandemic lockdowns and an accompanying surge in online shopping.The growth in online retail has fallen back and flatlined at between 26% and 28% of overall retail sales since a peak of 35% in mid-2020.Retail has outperformed all other types of commercial property this year, with 9
From shrimp Jesus to erotic tractors: how viral AI slop took over the internet
Flood of unreality is an endpoint of algorithm-driven internet and product of an economy dependent on a few top tech firms In the algorithm-driven economy of 2025, one man’s shrimp Jesus is another man’s side hustle.AI slop – the low-quality, surreal content flooding social media platforms, designed to farm views – is a phenomenon, some would say the phenomenon of the 2024 and 2025 internet. Merriam-Webster’s word of the year this year is “slop”, referring exclusively to the internet variety.It came about shortly after the advent of popular large language models, such as ChatGPT and Dall-E, which democratised content creation and enabled vast swathes of internet denizens to create images and videos that resembled – to varying degrees – the creations of professionals.In 2024, it began to achieve peak cultural moments
More than 20% of videos shown to new YouTube users are ‘AI slop’, study finds
More than 20% of the videos that YouTube’s algorithm shows to new users are “AI slop” – low-quality AI-generated content designed to farm views, research has found.The video-editing company Kapwing surveyed 15,000 of the world’s most popular YouTube channels – the top 100 in every country – and found that 278 of them contain only AI slop.Together, these AI slop channels have amassed more than 63bn views and 221 million subscribers, generating about $117m (£90m) in revenue each year, according to estimates.The researchers also made a new YouTube account and found that 104 of the first 500 videos recommended to its feed were AI slop. One-third of the 500 videos were “brainrot”, a category that includes AI slop and other low-quality content made to monetise attention
I was there: Red Roses lifted the Rugby World Cup with a roar like no other
Recalling the moment that England’s captain, Zoe Aldcroft, lifted the Rugby World Cup still brings goosebumps. Twickenham was bathed in September sunshine, there was not one empty green seat and when the Gloucester-Hartpury star raised the silverware with gold streamers and fire pyrotechnics, the roar from the crowd was a sound unmatched at any other women’s rugby game I have attended.England had rewarded the home fans as they executed the perfect gameplan against Canada, the in-form team who were the underdogs despite knocking out the six-time champions New Zealand in the semi-final. The stadium was sold out with a women’s rugby record of 81,885 creating an electric atmosphere. Future World Cup finals will be sell-outs with a party-feel celebration but I am unsure if anything will be able to replicate the feeling on 2025 final day for everyone invested in women’s rugby
MCG curator concedes pitch went ‘too far’ in favouring bowlers amid criticism over short Boxing Day Test
The MCG’s head curator has conceded staff went “too far” in preparing a pitch that favoured the bowlers too heavily in the Boxing Day Test, saying he was in a “state of shock” while watching the match unfold.But the stadium’s chief executive is standing by the under-fire curator after the Test match between Australia and England finished within two days.Cricket Australia is bracing for a heavy financial loss from the match, only a month after the Ashes opener in Perth also ended with three days to spare.It is the first time the same series has had multiple two-day Tests in 129 years.Millions of dollars in refunds will be handed to patrons who had purchased tickets for day three, which had been sold out and could have attracted a third successive crowd of more than 90,000
‘Undermines free speech’: Labour MP hits back at US government over visa ban on UK campaigners
Visa ban for European critics of online harm is first shot in US free speech war
European leaders condemn US visa bans as row over ‘censorship’ escalates
‘A gamechanger’: 200,000 UK small businesses sign up to TikTok Shop
Former EU commissioner and activists barred from US in attack on European tech regulators
Elon Musk, AI and the antichrist: the biggest tech stories of 2025