Travis Cullen reached a career driving milestone on Friday, Oct. 9 at Woodbine Mohawk Park, surpassing the $30 million mark in purse earnings.
Cullen reached the money milestone with his pacing mare Raptors Won, this year's Forest City Pace runner-up, when she closed from the backfield in :26.4 to earn a fifth-place cheque in the evening's $20,000 seventh race for conditioned optional claiming distaffers.
Cullen also picked up cheques with three of his earlier mounts on Friday, including a victory in his first drive of the night with another one of his top pacing mares, Tells On A Roll. The six-year-old daughter of Tellitlikeitis knocked four-fifths of a second off her lifetime mark when she powered home in :26.4 to win a $24,000 conditioned distaff pace in 1:48.2, the fastest mile on the 11-race card. A top three finisher in last year's Grade 1 Breeders Crown Open Mares Pace, Tells On A Roll is trained by Cullen's mother Jodie and owned by his A1 Stable along with his father Ron and partner Paul Saunders.
Cullen had a driving double during his milestone night as he engineered a 13-1 upset later in the 10th race aboard the Carmen Auciello-trained trotter Black Bullet in 1:54.4.
The 34-year-old Manitoba native, who drove his first winner in 2010 and took home the 2013 Future Star Award, has recorded 11 seven-figure seasons while topping $3 million in earnings the last five consecutive years. He's ranked among the top 10 drivers in Canada for earnings in a single season seven times, with his $3,461,498 earnings so far this year currently fifth best nation-wide.
Cullen celebrated another career milestone earlier this year when he topped 3,000 driving wins in May. He has added 111 more wins to his career total since then.
To view Friday's harness racing results, click the following link: Friday Results - Woodbine Mohawk Park.
(Standardbred Canada; photo of Travis Cullen winning with Tells On A Roll on Oct. 9)