Meadowlands: Cullipher expanding his horizons to the East Coast

Hoosier Park’s leading trainer Jeff Cullipher has expanded his reach this winter with anticipation of a wider focus in 2019. Cullipher has been a regular on weekends at The Meadowlands this fall and expects things to change a bit this year.

“It was a little late to bring horses to Yonkers,” said Cullipher from his Indiana base. “I’m getting more horses ready and we’re pointing to race throughout the northeast.”

While Cullipher is happy with the progress he and co-owner Thomas Pollack have made racing primarily in Indiana, he has run into a similar problem over the last month at The Meadowlands. Essentially because he has more high-level horses than other stables, quite often he has two horses in the same race. Such is the case again this weekend as on Friday his pair of Stylish Beachwhere (post 2) and Kak’s Shark Attack (post 3) are part of the $17,500 eighth race for Non-winners of $15,000 in last five conditioned company.

“She’s been a little disappointing,” said Cullipher in reference to Stylish Beachwhere, who finished seventh to Darlinonthebeach in last week’s feature. “I think she’s the better of the two.” Kak’s Shark Attack won impressively at the same level two starts back but faded badly last week.

Saturday’s $21,000 Preferred Handicap is another situation where Cullipher faces an uphill battle with two from his collection. “I think Stonedust (post 1) is up a little high in class after racing well in a series earlier this year,” said Cullipher. “New Talent is an Open horse wherever he races.”

New Talent, a hard-hitting son of Mach Three, has been a mainstay over the last two seasons for Cullipher as he’s carved out a solid niche in Hoosier country. He was an impressive winner from post 10 against weaker foes last week and now gets post six on Saturday for the feature.

Joining Cullipher’s pair in Saturday’s Preferred Handicap is Constntlysidewys (post 10), a winner in three of his last four starts including two 1:49 1/5 efforts. The Tahnee Camilleri-trained import was stymied in his first trip against this company finishing fourth on December 22.

Turning horses around has been part of the Cullipher success story and the trainer whose stable is based at White Birch Farm in New Jersey has seen Dubious Claim advance quickly since his first Meadowlands start on December 8. “We scoped him after that race (seventh-place finish) and he bled,” said Cullipher. “We put him on Lasix and that seems to have made a difference.”

That’s quite the understatement as Dubious Claim was just a neck off in a 1:50 mile in his very next start and then last week romped in 1:52 while racing at the bottom conditioned level. On Saturday, Dubious Claim landed post three and will be jumping a couple of classes.

With some 50 horses in his stable, The Meadowlands is the first stop for Cullipher’s horses in 2019 but it won’t be the last. “I’m getting some horses ready now and I’m looking to have horses for the half-mile track at Yonkers,” Cullipher said. “We’re also looking to get set up to race in Pennsylvania over the five-eighths mile tracks when they open in the spring.”

Cullipher’s is an interesting story in that he started as a driver but did not pursue that career for that long. “I wasn’t very good,” Cullipher stated bluntly. “I actually got out of the business for a while and worked as a correctional officer. It was one of those things that I just kept following the horses and the results all the time and had to get back in.”

Cullipher’s break so to speak came when owner Thomas Pollack sent him a horse to race in Indiana that was entered in a series. The horse did well enough and according to Cullipher, the owner and trainer had a lot of thoughts in common. The result is now a partnership with the two sharing ownership and always on the lookout for new blood. “It’s a lot of work hiring people and setting up a new stable in New Jersey,” Cullipher said. At the same time it has become obvious to both owner and trainer that racing 12 months a year is more of a necessity now than it ever has been.

Right now the stable is more focused on horses that will fit all sized tracks in the northeast, a departure in some ways for Cullipher, who in years past primarily looked for horses that would do over the seven-eighths track at Hoosier Park. With 119 wins just at Hoosier, Cullipher was its leading conditioner in 2018. Expect those numbers to rise considerably in 2019.