MANY congratulations to Annalise Cullen who rode her first winner on the racecourse on Monday afternoon when Zephron, who was sent off 11/2 joint favourite, landed the concluding six-furlong handicap at The Curragh by two and three-quarter lengths.

This was an 18th ride on the track, and a fourth in succession on Richard MacBriatharlaoch’s Zephron, for 19-year-old Cullen who was a very well-known and successful member of the Kildare Branch of the Irish Pony Club and also competed as a pony rider and as a Junior in many home international horse trials.

Representing the Kildares, Annalise competed on the Branch’s eventing and show jumping teams and won the Intermediate combined training championship at the 2016 Dublin Horse Show on AC Remus. When she began competing under Eventing Ireland rules in September 2014, Annalise rode AC Remus at EI90 (P) level – the combination being national champions in 2015 – while last year, she rode the Appaloosa gelding twice in EI100 Junior classes.

Cullen has two eventers for this season but they are still out in the field as she combines race-riding as an apprentice with studying Global Commerce online as a student at NUI Galway. She was bred to race as both her father Denis, who trains Zephron, and her mother Ann Marie (nee O’Brien), who was District Commissioner of the Kildares for three years, successfully rode as amateurs on the track with Denis also recording a lot of wins in point-to-points.

Ann Marie’s late father Michael was a former champion jumps jockey in the USA who, following a fall which left him confined to a wheelchair, became a very successful trainer back on these shores. Her uncle, Leo O’Brien, who was also a National Hunt jockey in the States before training over there, famously sent Fourstars Allstars across the Atlantic to win the 1991 running of the Irish 2,000 Guineas. That Classic takes place at The Curragh and on Monday, Leo rang Annalise to tell her that he too rode his first winner at the Headquarters of Irish racing.

Riding in its various forms isn’t Annalise’s only skill as she is on the senior ladies’ team of the Two-Mile-House GAA club where her brother Christopher, who doesn’t ride at all, is a member of the Under 15s team.