Chris Cullinan

Chris Cullinan

Article by Alan Trout

National Hunt jockey Chris Cullinan was associated with the stable of leading Scottish trainer Stewart Wight, who trained at Grantshouse, in Berwickshire. He rode six winners over the course of two seasons in the early 1950s, five of them on a selling hurdler named Drapa. 

It was at Newcastle on November 10, 1952 that he opened his account when 9-2 chance Drapa took the Brunton Selling Hurdle by a neck. The eight-year-old had already won two races that season, ridden both times by Wight’s stable jockey Dick Curran, but this particular race was for novice riders so Chris had his chance and duly took it. 

His next win was achieved on Scarlet Flower, who came home a comfortable winner of the Hollybush Novices’ Chase at Ayr on March 23, 1953. His last victory of the season came on Drapa in the Shire Selling Handicap Hurdle – again for novice riders – at Hexham’s Whitsun meeting on May 23. 

The 1953/54 season began in familiar fashion with a repeat victory on Drapa in Newcastle’s Brunton Selling Hurdle on November 2. They won again later that season, the Largie Toll Selling Hurdle at Ayr on March 20, this time against senior jockeys. At the finish, the judge was unable to split Chris and Drapa and the experienced amateur Bobby Brewis on Funcheon View, announcing a dead-heat. 

His sixth and final victory, again on Drapa, was in the Wetheral Selling Hurdle at Carlisle on Easter Monday, April 19, 1954, winning by two lengths. 

Chris Cullinan kept his licence for one more season, but when Drapa won twice in January 1956, it was Dick Curram who had the mount.