Cullen stocks on the rise

Hayden and Amanda Cullen’s harness racing stable has moved. Purdon Racing have vacated their Rolleston barn to head north, and the Cullens have relocated to the stable where they both previously worked as employees for All Stars.

Hayden got started in the sport working for his father Barry and he worked in the school holidays for Nicky Chilcott.

“Dad pottered around with four or five horses,” he said.

Hayden took out a junior driver’s licence in 2001 and drove his first winner at Cambridge in February 2002 when Holme On The Riveria trained by his first employer Andrew Neal won.

“He was quite a good horse and went on to win a few races (8). I did enjoy the driving but you probably need to be getting four or five drives a week to keep your hand in. Once I lost my junior driver’s licence and went into training partnership with Brent Mangos I lost a few of my drives and was only getting one or two here and there. So driving fell by the wayside.”

With Mangos, Cullen trained 62 winners, the first being El De Rosa at Alexandra Park in August 2010.

“We had quite a handy team in those first few years. Molly Darling was there when I first started working for him. She was a multiple Group One winner.”

It was with Mangos that Hayden trained his first Group One winner Bettor Cover Lover. She won the Rossland Queen Of Hearts in December 2011. She won two more Group Ones for the partnership – the 2012 Queen Of Hearts and the PGG Wrightson NZ Breeders Stakes.

At that point Amanda was working for Waikato Thoroughbred trainer Graeme Rogerson and Hayden moved from Mango’s stable to join her.

“I was thinking about getting out of racing but ended up at Rogies as well. Then we ended up getting jobs for Mark (Purdon). Mark has been the best in the business for so many years and I thought it would be a good opportunity to learn a lot and work with some good horses.”

Amanda comes from a thoroughbred background. Her father Gary Barlow trained with Jeff Lynds. She started riding work for her father at a young age and was a jockey for a short time.

“I rode track work for fifteen years. I left home and moved to Graeme Rogerson’s when I was nineteen. I worked with Debbie (Rogerson) more so than Graeme for about eight years. Debbie had quite a few nice fillies when I was there and Katie Lee was probably the best of the bunch.”

Katie Lee won eight of her 23 starts including the Sir Tristram Fillies Classic, Eight Caret Classic, NZ 1000 Guineas and NZ 2000 Guineas.

After working for Purdon for twelve months Hayden was promoted to stable foreman of the All Stars.

“When Mark and Nat went on their sabbatical they asked me if I would be keen to take over the running of the place.”

Hayden started training from the All Starts barn on his own account and between January 2021 and September 2021 he trained fifty five winners including ten Group One’s.

“It was exciting but stressful and you had to keep them (the horses) winning as though Mark and Nat were still here. It was a big task. We managed to get Group One winners, so were pretty happy with what we achieved.”

When Purdon returned to the training ranks in late in 2021 he took Hayden into partnership and the pair trained 129 winners between October 2021 and December 2022.

Then after a short stint with Steve and Amanda Telfer, Hayden returned to training on his own account utilising Blair Orange’s property at West Melton.

“Blair’s place was a great starting point and it really helped us get on our feet, but we just outgrew it,” Amanda said.

When the opportunity came up to move back into the All Stars barn at Rolleston the Cullens took it despite knowing it would be for a short time as the land has been sold for a housing development.

“It feels like coming home. It’s looking likely that we’ll be here until April next year. The developers are keeping us in the loop on how everything is going and what the timelines are looking like,” Amanda said.

At the required time the Cullens will relocate their operation again.

“We started laying out plans even before we moved in here on 1^st May and those plans are coming to fruition as we speak. Nothing is finalised yet but hopefully they will be in the next month or so.”

Hayden says the main reason for the partnership moving back to Rolleston was capacity.

“Over the winter we can bring all the horses into boxes and keep the business heading in the right direction,” he said.

The Rolleston barn can house up to forty horses and at the moment the stable has three full-time staff – Olivia Thornley, Jacob Bennett and Matthew McGuire.

Amanda and Hayden’s fathers also have roles at the stable.

“Dad was with Mark and Nat and he stayed on with Mark and Nathan, (Purdon) and now he’s with us. He does all the maintenance and track upkeep so he’s fulltime as well,” Amanda said.

On the ownership front the Cullen’s have plenty of firepower and have managed to attract some of the industry’s biggest names including Kevin McKerrow of McKerrow Bloodstock and Denis and Mark Dunford.

“Kevin has been a big supporter of us. He’s got those three lovely fillies (General Jen, Winelight and Arafura) that he’s got shares in and they’re doing a good job for him.”

General Jen has won five of her ten starts for stakes of $85,000. Winelight has won two of her thirteen starts and has been stakes placed five times for earnings of $152,904 while Arafura has won two of her ten starts including the Group One Northern Oaks. She’s earned $123,652.

“Denis and Mark Dunford have been great to us as well. Hopefully we can keep rolling out the winners for them.”

The Dunfords own We Walk By Faith and when he won the Taylor Mile it was Hayden’s first New Zealand Derby win and Amanda and Hayden’s first Group One win.

To secure their future the couple were also busy at his years NZB Standardbred Yearling Sales buying five yearlings.

They paid $160,000 for Faith Not Fear, a Captaintreacherous – Imaginary Bet colt who’s a half-brother to Merlin and a full brother to Captains Mistress. He’s owned by the Dunfords.

They shelled out $90,000 for Bulsara, an Art Major – Agree With Me colt who’s a full brother to I Got Chills. Included in this colt’s ownership are Peter Baken, Graham Beirne and Frank and Shane Endacott.

Other buys include a Bettor’s Delight – Hopes And Dreams filly, Chivalrous Warrior a Downbytheseaside – Better Be A Lady colt which is owned by McKerrow Bloodstock and a trotting colt Eyes Wide Open (What The Hill – Eilish Aimee) who’s related to recent winner Lil Whip and Ocean Eyes. Included in the ownership of this colt is the newly formed Cullen Racing Syndicate 2025.

“The Alabar crew that go back to the Chase Auckland days have been great supporters of ours right from the days of Wish Me Luck. Many of those syndicate members wanted to carry on, so most of them have popped over to the new syndicate. We’ve also got new people through the gate to join the new syndicate,” Amanda said.

The syndicate has shares in the Hopes And Dreams filly.

Paul and Mary Kenny have also come on board and the Cullens have a yearling filly Butwaittheresme in work which is closely related to Hands Christian, Christian Me and Dream About Me.

“She’s taken a bit to get going but she’s pacing around now and feels like a nice filly,” Hayden said.

Since Hayden and Amanda have started their partnership they’ve trained fifteen winners including two at Group One level for an excellent UDR of .3870.

For Hayden, Arafura’s win in the Northern Oaks was an early season highlight.

“That was a big thrill. She took a far bit of making. We’ve just had a lot of trouble getting her pacing right and seeing her put it all together on the track was pretty satisfying.”

Amanda’s highlight was at the end of last season when We Walk By Faith won the New Zealand Derby.

“Everything was going well at home but nothing was going as good as it should at the races until the week before (running second in the Ian Dobson Classic). That Derby win was a massive thrill. A big one for me.”

We Walk By Faith has now won eight races – two for Hayden and Amanda.

“We’ve looked after him in Sydney and the first part of the season. He is quite a tough horse who does keep going and we should be able to drive him a bit tougher next time in,” Hayden said.

With top liners We Walk By Faith and Don’t Stop Dreaming, three good three year old fillies in Arafura, General Jen and Winelight and a handful of good intermediate horses, the Cullens look to have a good second part of the season ahead of them.

by Bruce Stewart, for Harnesslink