Hayden Cullen double

West Melton horseman Hayden Cullen scored a harness racing double at Addington tonight.

General Jen (Captaintreacherous) only qualified at Ashburton eight days ago but carried strong support tonight on debut. In the hands of Blair Orange tonight he held on to beat favourite Forever Dream (Downbytheseaside) by half a head.

“When I took her to qualify the second time she made a mistake behind the gate when she shied at the starter who was right in front of her. She’s one of those tradesmanlike horses. She’s never had any issues. She just gets out there and does the job,” Hayden said.

It was a good result for the stable with stablemate Winelight (Downbytheseaside) running home nicely for third.

“She went nice too. She’s getting better all the time but still has a bit to learn and isn’t steering  100% but I thought her run was very good also.”

Cullen said he’d not been sure whether General Jen got the call.

“Blair said she got to the front fairly easily and knocked off. She’ll take a lot of improvement from that and a bit more ringcraft.”

Both General Jen and Winelight are owned by Kevin McKerrow from McKerrow Bloodstock.

“We’ve got four two year old fillies from him and those two are the first ones to the races.”

General Jen is out of Gold Elite (Bettor’s Delight) which won six races for Geoff Small and is the full sister to Gold Ace, the winner of twenty two including four Group One races; the New Zealand Derby, Sires’ Stakes Final, New Zealand FFA and Three Year Old Emerald.

There are plenty of other winners in the family including Charlie Brown, Tasmania Cup winner Where’s The Gold, and Always Elite.

A $70,000 G2 race at Winton on 13^th April is a possibility for General Jen but there’s also the Cobbitty Equine Farm Leonard Memorial at the Cheviot meeting on the 7th.

“There’s a bit of a balls up with the programming. The Cheviot meeting is next week and the one down south is only six days later so you can’t go to both. We’ll just have to talk to our owners and work out a bit of a plan.”

Earlier in the programme Cullen won with Wish Me Luck (Vincent). The three length winner was driven by Sam Thornley who currently sits in second place in the New Zealand Junior Drivers Premiership behind Carter Dalgety.

“He’s (Wish Me Luck) been faultless really. His first three runs for us have been good and he looks like a pretty promising horse.”

Cullen says he’s beginning to build good stable numbers with twenty horses currently in work.

“The numbers are stepping up all the time. We had success with Indiana Arden so we’ve got another couple from John Stiven.”

by Bruce Stewart, for Harnesslink