Cullin Hills, who was trained by Will Milburn to win last season’s Connolly’s RED MILLS leading horse title, has been side-lined by injury.
“We found a bit of heat in a leg,” said Milburn, who is based in the Yorkshire village of Sheriff Hutton. “She came back in after her summer break and had been in work for about six weeks when we found the problem. We don’t know whether she did it out in the field or after coming back in, but hopefully she will be back next season.
“She’s had a month’s box rest now and everything is going the right way. It’s frustrating, but we had a lifetime’s worth of fun in one season so we’ll take it on the chin.”
Cullin Hills (pictured above, winning at Witton Castle under Paddy Barlow) ran 11 times last season, winning seven point-to-points and finishing second of nine runners in Hexham’s Heart of all England maiden hunters’ chase. Milburn, who works as assistant to licensed trainer Mark Walford, bought the daughter of Millenary for just £2,500 at Goffs’ Doncaster sale in August 2021. Last season she raced in the colours of her trainer’s mother Carol and his uncle Derryk.
Will Milburn: "We've had a lifetime's worth of fun" (Pic: Ce)
Milburn added: “I wouldn’t mind breeding from Cullin Hills one day, but I’d like to get a win under rules first which would help from a breeding point of view. If she had won the ‘Heart’, but it wasn’t to be . . .”
While Cullin Hills takes it easy Milburn has three unraced pointers on which to focus, and while he said his expectations were not high, he added: “I said the same of Cullin Hills before she raced.”