Like all jumps jockeys, Cully had from day one wanted to win this race, the drama from which is legendary in the extreme. "But I've never got warm - until now. This is the greatest moment of my life."
Ditto for 34-year-old Mark Brooks, a master horseman who narrowly chose training thoroughbreds over international showjumping, at which he excelled.
Brooks was born into horses. His grandfather Harold was the Master of the Pakuranga Hunt and his father, Roger, trained a team until his son came on line as a public trainer six years ago.
For reasons chiefly unexplained, Great Northerns are great copy for journalists. This one lived up to the history, when the float transporter taking Jack Romanov to Ellerslie from Cambridge turned into a ball of smoke on the Bombay Hills.
As if nerves were not already jangled by the thought of three times over the Ellerslie Hill and an exhausting 6400m, this group, which included some of the owners, were in near panic that they wouldn't get to the track in time for the race.
Then, less than 40 seconds into the race, Emily Farr opened up a staggeringly long lead on Eric The Viking. Through two rounds of Ellerslie the pair got further and further in front and down the back the last time Eric The Viking led by one clear fence and four seconds.
But as it has done to the bravest of the brave, the third trip up the Hill took its toll and Eric The Viking had the stitch. Experience counts for a lot in every facet of horse racing and two of those heading the chase after Eric The Viking, Richard Cully and Australia's Steve Pateman, didn't panic, which was the right tactic because history tells you Eric The Viking had to come back to the field.
It happened and by the last time down the Hill the pecking order changed.
Cully and Pateman suddenly knew their tactics had been right and were there in contention.
The drama didn't finish there -- Jo Rathbone, who had her first jumps raceday ride on second-placed Mahanadi in the Great Northern Hurdles two races earlier, was saddling up the Kevin Myers Snodroptwinkletoes for the Great Northern Steeplechase when she discovered she was not going to be the horse's strapper, but his rider in the toughest steeplechase anyone has seen.
Isaac Lupton had not pulled up as well as his third-placed mount in the Great Northern Hurdles, Wee Biskit, and was sent to hospital with an elevated heart rate.
• When the late great Melbourne racecaller Bill Collins died, his epitaph was that he could paint a picture with five or six words down his microphone.
Sam Trotter came close to the magnificence of Collins in his official speech after Gagarin raced away with Saturday's $125,000 Schweppes Great Northern Hurdles at Ellerslie.
Trotter wanted to pay tribute to his always-absent trainer Kevin Myers. "Kevin always keeps you in the dark."
Right there was the Collins touch, even if it fell over the six-word limit by a single digit. It perfectly summed up the man they call "Dummy", who is anything but.
You almost never see Myers on raceday, but his presence is always represented by the magnificence of the horses he sends to the track.
Myers, particularly when talking about his horses, can make the statues on Easter Island seem positively noisy. Even the owners can be left wondering about their raceday chances, although it's not really wondering because when the big money is up you just know the horse's preparation is timed to the minute.
Myers had done his conditioning beautifully and Gagarin kept going strongly to prove he was the best stayer.
Sam Trotter has had his own licence, but has become too busy on his lower North Island farm. He passed Gagarin and Nitty Gritty on to Myers, who at home, could feel satisfied in producing the quinella result with Mahanadi, who did not jump the last hurdle as well as the winner.
