"Not that we have been working them hard or anything. We've just been ticking them over with plenty of pacework, dressage and hill work."
Cullen said he and Lourie have eight horses on-site that have all been in work, to some extent, for the past six weeks and are now ready to have a jumpout or trial.
The eight are Group 1 winner Wait A Sec, Ruie's Crumpet, Vroom, Swish Az, Mercy Hill, Red Sunday, Vin Rouge and Blakkalberry.
Wait A Sec, whose 13 wins include the 2017 Livamol Classic (2040m) at Hastings, has been unplaced in four starts this season but Cullen says the Postponed 9-year-old is looking good and the onset of winter tracks could suit him.
"He has won on slow and heavy tracks and it might slow the others down, which could help him," Cullen said.
Cullen said race winners Ruie's Crumpet, Vroom and Swish Az should also cope with rain-affected tracks while Mercy Hill is a relative newcomer to their stable but has won four races, three on dead footing.
Swish Az is a Swiss Ace mare who has won two of her 10 starts, the most recent over 1600m on a dead track at Hastings at the end of February, while Vroom cleared maiden ranks over 1600m on a dead track at Gisborne in February.
"The others are young horses who haven't been tried on wet tacks yet so we will just see how they go," Cullen added.
New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing (NZTR) has brought in a ruling that raced horses can only trial once before they resume racing and Cullen said several of their horses will be ready to step out at the first Central Districts trials, scheduled for Foxton on June 4.
There is now no restriction on the number of jumpouts a horse can have before returning to the racetrack and it is hoped that there will be jumpouts held at the Hastings track towards the end of this month.
Gallops racing in New Zealand is set to resume on Friday, July 3, when the Canterbury Jockey Club will stage a meeting at Riccarton Park.
There are 13 gallop meetings scheduled between July 3 and the end of the racing season on July 31 but they will only be run on six racetracks, Riccarton, Te Rapa, Awapuni, Wanganui, Pukekohe and Invercargill.
NZTR has announced a flat stakes level of $15,000 for all races at the 13 meetings during July and that stake money will be paid out on the first 14 horses in each race. There will also be no nomination and acceptance fees charged for horses that start in the races.
Cullen said the $15,000 stake per race, across the board, is a good starting point.
"It is a positive sign that they have put that figure up and hopefully things don't drop too much in the future."
John Bary is another Hawke's Bay trainer who has been able to work his horses at his own property, in Mutiny Rd, where he has an 800m training track.
He said this week he has 22 horses in work, nine of which should be ready to race in July.
Those nine are Louboutin, The Bandito, Cool Hand Duke, Manhattan Girl, Lady Godiva, Spydapus, Smokin' Oak, Eleventh Hour and an Ocean Park 3-year-old half-sister to former stable star Miss Selby.
"The others are all just 2-year-olds in for early education and will then be turned out again," Bary said.
He said that most of the horses in his stable were turned out during the level 4 lockdown, but a few have had their work stepped up in the past couple of weeks and will be ready for a jumpout at the end of this month.
Bary said Louboutin won two races on heavy tracks at Wanganui last winter and he hopes to have the Jimmy Choux mare ready to fire again at the Wanganui meeting on July 10.
"Smokin' Oak has also won at Wanganui on the wet so hopefully he can go back there, and Manhattan Girl also goes well on wet tracks," Bary said.
"We've got a couple of jumping races in mind for Cool Hand Duke, while Lady Godiva has been in pre-training and has come back into the stable in excellent order."
Spydapus is a 3-year-old filly by Burgundy, who was impressive when winning an 850m Foxton trial in March and then finished third on debut over 1000m at Tauherenikau.
Asked what he thought of the $15,000 across-the-board stake money for all races in July, Bary said that, under the circumstances, it was probably fair and will be good for trainers with maidens as they would previously have raced for a $10,000 maximum.
On stake money levels in the future, Bary said: "There is likely to be fewer races, which will help, and hopefully Rita (Racing Industry Transition Agency) will get some Government assistance. And if they do, hopefully, they don't squander it on infrastructure and wages and give it back in stake money, which is what they are supposed to do."
Paul Nelson, who trains in partnership with Corrina McDougal, prepares his horses mainly on the Air Hill Stud property that he and wife Carol own.
He said this week they have 14 horses in work and that most of them have been ticking over during the lockdown period.
"We couldn't turn them out because, with the drought, there was nothing to turn them out on," Nelson said.
"They all basically had three weeks off but then have been back on the walker."
The Nelson/McDougal stable concentrates on jumpers and Nelson said most of their team have had four and a half months work getting ready for the jumping season, which has now been delayed until July and will now go through to November.
The horses the stable has in work include No Change, Perry Mason, Second Innings, Revolution, Rocky, Wagner, The Cossack and Peso.
Nelson said most of this group should be ready to race in July but added that the $15,000 across-the-board stake money for that month is not a great reward for trainers that will have had jumpers in work for up to six months.
The proposed jumps racing programme for the remainder of the year will run from July 10 through to November 1 with the country's major jumping races now scheduled for September and October. Nelson has concerns tracks may become too firm again by then.
The McGregor Grant Steeplechase and K S Browne Hurdle are set down for Ellerslie on September 12 with the Pakuranga Hunt Cup and an open hurdle at Ellerslie on October 4.
The Great Northern Steeplechase and Great Northern Hurdle, two of the most prestigious jumping races in the country, will now both be run on October 17.
Nelson said he was still not totally convinced New Zealand gallops racing will start up again in July and that there are several things that need to be ironed out before then.
He can also see that with a limited amount of race meetings in the Central Districts under the new proposed racing calendar, there will be a lack of opportunities for young horses and maidens.
NZTR chief executive Bernard Saundry says that by having an across-the-board $15,000 stake for all races in July as well as paying stake money back to 14th and waiving nomination and acceptance fees will spread the prize money across more ownership groups.
"This is a start, which is really important for us as we resume racing in this critical period."
Saundry added that there has been cost-cutting in all the different racing industry organisations.
"Every part of the Rita business and those of the JCA [Judicial Control Authority], RIU [Racing Integrity Unit] and the three codes have all taken a 20 per cent reduction in the cost of running their business and that is going to be ongoing," Saundry said.
"That will help us to continue to invest in the industry."
