Fulford continuing family legacy

Charlotte Fulford may have taken some convincing to take out her trainer’s license, but she is glad she did, with the Kapiti Coast horsewoman recording her first win in that capacity at Tauherenikau on Sunday.

She brought up the win alongside her training partner John Kiernan when Dancing Fantail broke through for his maiden win in the Jackson St Bar (2050m), and the pair were duly rapt with the result.

“I am pretty chuffed,” Fulford said. “I am pretty lucky to be teamed up with John Kiernan, he is a good mentor.”

Fulford has been immersed in racing her entire life, having grown up at Otaki Racecourse where she started riding trackwork as a teenager, and that is where her association with Kiernan began.

“Mum and Dad moved down to Otaki from Cambridge when I was four and Dad took over being the course manager at Otaki-Maori Racing Club, and we lived on the property,” Fulford said.

“I then started riding track work when I was 13 for Mr Didham and a couple of old trainers that have since passed, and I rode for John a couple of times when I was younger.”

Fulford had well and truly caught the racing bug and she was intent on pursuing a career as a jockey, but after talking with her father, she decided to park that dream and go and see the world instead.

“I thought I was always going to be a jockey, but Dad said to me ‘why don’t you go and travel before you do that?’, so I went travelling and got into the travel industry and it is not something that I regret doing,” Fulford said.

She returned home, and to the racing industry, following her father’s passing, and while her career has subsequently taken her in other directions, racing has always remained a constant, but it wasn’t until six years ago that she returned to trackwork riding and renewed her association with Kiernan.

“When Dad passed away, Mum took over being the caretaker of Otaki-Maori and then I started working there as well just to help Mum out,” Fulford said.

“When COVID hit I took a change in direction and came back to riding track work, which is my passion, I love it.

“Mum, who was still doing the gap at Otaki, said to John that I was back riding and he said ‘great, she can ride mine’, and we have been a team ever since.”

While enjoying being back riding, it wasn’t until last year that the seed of becoming a trainer was planted in her head by Kiernan.

“He (Kiernan) said to me last year that I better get my license and I thought ‘why not?’,” Fulford said. “It (training) is a bit different, but it gives it (racing) a different meaning.”

With racing heavily ingrained in Fulford’s family, she is pleased she is continuing that legacy, alongside her brother, Jason, who works as the track manager at Ellerslie.

“My grandfather, Jim Winiata, used to train as well,” Fulford said. “I have got 26 first cousins and I think that I am the only one that followed my grandfather into riding racehorses.”

Dancing Fantail has been the partnership’s sole representative to the races to date and he had been knocking on the door in his last couple of starts, having placed at Tauherenikau in March before running fourth at Wanganui last month, and Fulford was rapt jockey Liam Kauri was able to get him over the line on Sunday.

“He ran a really good race at Wanganui, Liam did a great job, and he pulled up from that race really well. He can adapt to anything really and he proved himself today.

“It was a really good ride from Liam. I was really chuffed with him.”

Fulford has been pleased with the progression of the five-year-old son of Staphanos, who she said has his quirks.

“He is definitely an acquired taste, he lives on the spectrum,” she said. “We think of him as an upside-down horse and you don’t really know what you are going to get, but he has come a long way, he has just really settled.”

Fulford juggles her racing commitments alongside her job as a real estate agent, and while Sunday is normally her busiest day of the week with open homes, she said she is lucky she works as a team so she was able to be trackside for the win.

“I work as a team and my work colleague, Lydia, has done all the open homes today, we are quite busy at the moment,” Fulford said.

“I finished a contract last (Saturday) night at 8:30pm and that is just part of the job, you just work when you can and make hay while the sun shines.”

Now with a training win under her belt, Fulford is hoping there are plenty more to come, and she is particularly excited about a younger member of her barn in three-year-old Sweynesse gelding Vatican Underbelly.

“We have got a little Sweynesse coming along and he will go to a trial or a jumpout soon,” she said. “We would like to get him going and see what he is like on these tracks as well. He seems quite exciting. He is a neat little horse.”