Cullen will leave his successful partnership with Purdon on December 31, with Purdon yet to announce exactly what names will be on his stable stationery next season.
“My wife Amanda and I can’t thank Mark and Natalie [Rasmussen] and the owners for all the opportunities we have had but I think the time is right to move on to a new challenge,” says Cullen.
“We have been offered a great new career path by Stonewall Stud, so we are excited about that.”
Team Telfer is overseen by Stonewall Stud boss Steve Stockman, who has been a prolific spender at the yearling and weanling sales but a huge breeder of quality stock.
He has consistently grown the stable to the point where senior trainer Steve Telfer oversees the operation of the northern stable in Clevedon and the Canterbury stable temporarily based at Dancingon-moonlight Farm.
But Stockman is building a two-barn training establishment at the property formerly owned by the late Jack Smolenski and that is where Amanda Telfer and Cullen will train a team each next season.
The trio of Telfer, Telfer and Cullen will enter into an official partnership from January 1 that will quickly be known as Telfer-Cullen.
Stockman says while the harness racing industry faces challenges, the businessman believes these are cyclical and he wants breeders and other owners to know Stonewall’s investment in the industry will continue and possibly even grow.
Telfer, who turns 52 on Boxing Day, says the new challenge of overseeing one of New Zealand’s biggest stables of either code is exciting.
“We have put together a great team of staff in both islands and Hayden and his wife Amanda will bolster that,” says Telfer. “They will spend some time both down south and then up here initially to see how he does things and add their own knowledge.
“We are looking at sending a four-horse team to Menangle for February and March, which Amanda [Telfer’s sister] will travel with, so Hayden will be in charge down south during that period.
“The new property will be finished next year and Steve [Stockman] has purchased two nine-horse trucks so we can also attack racing in Southland, where Steve even considered setting up another property but decided a bigger Canterbury base was the better option.
“We are going to be using a lot of the new technology available, the stuff being used by the big Australian thoroughbred trainers, to collect data off the horses, and we want to keep improving.
“So it is an exciting time and it
is great to have a couple of Hayden and Amanda’s experience come on board.”
Team Telfer starts this week’s racing as the TAB’s $1.42 favourites to win their first trainers’ title.
The way they are growing, they could start next season even shorter to win the 2023 premiership.
