Charlie Cullen

[Greg Hando]

Congratulation's Phil on your win today at Bathurst. The girl drove him well today.

[dizzy]

Greg I presume you mean "strong persuader by a differnt name? Congratulations

[Triple V]

Congrats Greg. Great result.

[strong persuader]

Thanks Greg, Dot, and perhaps Jaimie :)
Was a nice pickup for all concerned as the lovely lady that owns him is to have some exploratory surgery tomorrow on some mystery problem that has had her in and out of hospital for a bit lately. She phoned me last night to say that it was the best medicine she had gotten in a good while.
We took Charlie on the same day we won at Forbes with Happy Magic, it has taken a little over three months and there have been some setbacks along the way, but it sure as hell was nice to see him salute and confirm my opinion that the horse did have a win or two in him, even though he had had near 40 starts for only 4 minor placings beforehand!
On the subject of nice drive, I wasn't thinking that when she sat quiet whilst they walked a third quarter in 32.8 after going a 66.2 second half! I was thinking that Charlie couldn't sprint good enough to get back in the picture, but I am glad that I was wrong :)
I actually think that things started falling into place a few weeks back and was reasonably confident of a good result the previous run. If you have a look at this run when Cynthia actually got the bugger to gallop by trying to snag him in too quickly, you'll realise that we were getting confident that the horse was getting near to a good result. He started at the juicy odds of $130 for the win on that night, yesterday $25.40, so I guess a few had also noticed how good an eighth place can be at times!
Cynthia has taken up a job with Shannon Springs Standardbreds, been there a bit over a month, has driven a winner for them out of 3 or 4 drives, and now landed her 3rd winner on Charlie, so she has gotten off the ground flying, 3 winners in her first 4 and a bit months of driving, and rest assured her two for us have been on horses that are a long way short of champion status ;) , so she must do something right. I would hate to admit how long it took for me to drive my first three winners :) It was something like six or seven years to get the first :(

[Toohard]

Good for you Phil and family. Many congratulations!!

[doinmabest]

Congratz Phil....well done

[Greg Hando]

Greg I presume you mean "strong persuader by a differnt name? Congratulations

Yeah sorry Dot i should have put his user name as well .

[strong persuader]

A little bit more...........Kevin Thompson adjudged Cynthia's drive to be the 'Drive of the Night'. So she picks up a nice $25 voucher at Elies Cafe in Bathurst.

This Saturday night, the stablemates clash in R1. Cynthia has elected to drive Charlie Cullen, and she did have the choice :) I pick up the reins on Happy Magic!

I never thought Cynthia would pick Charlie over the other boy........ah well, will try and show that the teacher still has some lessons to dispense to the pupil :) The trash talk on the day will be interesting :)

[Triple V]

Good luck Phil, here's wishing you a stable quinella.

[strong persuader]

Good luck Phil, here's wishing you a stable quinella.

That would be a bit rich :) Not that we won't be trying for it and take it if it comes :) Realistically, just hope that one of them is able to sneak in to a place and both run a good race. I got another shock today, the Trotguide rang Cynthia for an interview, a fact she didn't reveal until we had read the article, but I had a phone call from the local Bathurst paper for a preview on how our horses would go tomorrow! I summed it up as they are both rough each way chances and that seeing as how I was following Cynthia out, that I had spent the last few days teaching Happy Magic to reach out and bite the driver in front of him :)

[strong persuader]

Here is a link to the article I was interviewed for, http://www.westernadvocate.com.au/story/196285/bourkes-chase-bragging-rights/?cs=116

Does that make me eligible for the media award of the year? :rolleyes:

[strong persuader]

On the surface it may be dissappointing to say that Charlie ran last. But please take a look at the replay and share your thoughts on what happened. http://www.trotstv.com.au/?mc=BH110812&rn=1

I won't post my thoughts at this point, as I can rightly be accused of being biased and I also had a closeup view of what happened.

[Danno]

On the surface it may be dissappointing to say that Charlie ran last. But please take a look at the replay and share your thoughts on what happened. http://www.trotstv.com.au/?mc=BH110812&rn=1

I won't post my thoughts at this point, as I can rightly be accused of being biased and I also had a closeup view of what happened.

G'day Phil,
not much doubt about where to lay the blame there, I'd expect the driver of Blue Papillon got a wrap over the knuckles at the least. Lucky 'cos it could have gotten uglier than it turned out.
Cheers,
Dan

[Toohard]

Gday Phil

I agree. Bloke driving Blue Papillon maybe worked out going to get caught in death. Eases back, his horse starts going a bit rough. Horse in green colours came off fence. Blue Papillon starts to hang out. Your horse took its spot and he tried to take it back. Came down on top of you. Not Cynthia's fault imo.

[clumsy]

One of those nasty racing incidents you sometimes get mixed up in

[Greg Hando]

And well done again tonight Phil a good win

[broncobrad]

Cynthia appears to have heeded your advice in the 'punishment stakes' too, Charlie was still giving everything he had on the line without copping a pounding. Keeping him straight, balanced and smooth in his action was the diff between winning and losing, good drive Cynthia. I thought Amanda's horse had a mortgage on the race, more fool me.

[Toohard]

Congratulations Phil, Cynthia and family!!!

[dizzy]

congratulations phil, cynthia and family!!!

ditto!!!

[strong persuader]

Thanks everyone. Was a pleasant surprise. I thought he was a chance of picking up a minor cheque with only an outside chance of winning.

The race panned out perfectly for him with Playboy Casino and Shadows of Shade burning out a 28.6 first quarter, then Lester Shannon going to the death seat allowed Cynthia to grab the one one. Not many horses in this grade will keep running after such a slick first quarter and so it proved with the placegetters all coming from those that had cruised through the first quarter in a more leisurely fashion.

On the line, none of us were sure of the result. Cynthia's twin sister has threatened her with extinction if she keeps winning by these half head margins, but the rest of us are just happy that she is winning :)

[strong persuader]

Here is an ironic coincidence for you. Take a look at the results from Bathurst on 27/12/1994 http://www.harness.org.au/meeting-results.cfm?mc=93N210&ms=nsw

You will see that A.S. (Steve) Turnbull trained and drove 5 winners from 8 races with Turnbull's providing the first four placegetters in three races. You will see that one P.W. Bourke is credited with one winner, though he also drove the fourth placegetter in the same race! I'll tell you that the last bit is incorrect, but will see if anyone out there can remember who drove which one of our two horses.

It actually came to mind when Amanda drove the first four winners on Wednesday night and I thought we're here with one horse, Charlie Cullen, can we spoil the party one more time! History shows that we did :)

I will leave it up to the mathemeticians to work out the odds of that sort of occurence.