Cullen nabs British Leading Driver title

As the 2021 British harness racing season drew to a close at the weekend, the race for the coveted British Harness Racing Club (BHRC) Leading Driver title was far from over.

Scottish driver Grant Cullen entered the weekend with a 7 point lead over nearest rival James Haythornthwaite, with brother Richard Haythornthwaite sitting only 1 win behind in third. The brothers had the advantage of drives at both Corbiewood in Scotland (Saturday 16th) and at Tir Prince in North Wales (Sunday 17th), however by close of play on Saturday at Grant’s local track, he had maintained a sufficient lead to secure the title regardless of Sunday’s outcome.

Aged just 28, Grant becomes the youngest driver since modern records began in 1995 to win the award and only the second Scottish driver ever to do so, after William Greenhorn in 2016. Multiple Scottish Driver of the Year titles precede this national title, and also accompany it for 2021 after he stretched clear of his rivals in recent weeks on his home soil.

Grant’s driving career began in 2009, however he had to wait until the 2010 season for his first visit to the winner’s circle partnering Soverain Howard to victory at Corbiewood, having only picked up a handful of drives in his first two seasons. The wins came in quicker succession in 2011, with Grant also enjoying his first drive outside of Scotland at Brough, in Cumbria.

The following year he kicked off the season with his first win

outside of Scotland on board stable legend Another Man at York Harness Raceway, a winning drive that would become one of many at the top level track throughout the years that followed.

Grant’s first win at a major fixture came in 2014 with Hamish Muirhead’s Racezapan when winning at the Tregaron Festival in Wales, following up on a string of successes closer to home and an ever-increasing number of catch drives for the young driver.

Wins followed at Aberystwyth on the family’s homebred Y-Not-Wait-N-C, a win Grant credited later that year as being one of the most memorable of his career thus far, and Tir Prince, as well as closer to home at Bells Field and Musselburgh. Victories in the Scottish Harness Racing Club 2YO Futurity and 3YO Derby, as well as the Murdock Final are just some of the home track highlights.

Back to the present day, and the 2021 season has been filled with major milestones for Grant, with stable favourite Live In Star in particular providing a number of memorable moments. In July, the duo landed the Group 1 Tregaron Welsh Classic Final at the relocated festival meeting at Tir Prince, and followed this up by winning the Robert Morton Memorial FFA at the PACT Charity Weekend a few weeks later. Returning to Corbiewood, the pair became one of only a handful of horses in the track’s 55 year history to hit the 2 minute marker when winning the Crock of Gold heat at the track’s feature Anniversary Weekend.

Not to be pigeonholed as a top class driver of pacers only, this year Grant has emerged as one of the leading drivers of a trotter also, having guided his brother’s Feerie De Triou and Green Light to victory no fewer than 7 times between them. Catch drive wins on board Amedeo De Jelma, Eliothrope and Equilea Du Hauty further cemented Grant’s reputation as a talented reinsman behind a trotter.

There have been very few meetings this year that Grant hasn’t attended; his dedication to his craft and the miles that he has racked up in pursuit of success have come to fruition and I am sure that everyone in British harness racing, and further afield, will join me in congratulating Grant on this major achievement.

by Sarah Thomas, for Harnesslink