Racing: Little lady and her lucky (Yule)star

By SUZANNE McFADDEN

Lorraine Nolan was a waitress at the Hawera racecourse when her future was derailed by a chance meeting down beside the track.

Ron Nolan was a farmer who trained broken-down horses that no-one else wanted.

They got talking. Ron got the courage up to ask her to the pictures, and then took her to the small farm he was renting, where he introduced her to his cows, pigs and horses.

She fell in love with the man and his menagerie, and 44 years later they have raised a millionaire horse who is the best pacer in Australasia.

It's a fairytale story. Here is a 61-year-old grandmother from a little Taranaki town who has shaken up the harness racing world with one great horse.

It is hard to picture Lorraine in control of the enormous, and sometimes stroppy, Yulestar. She is 1.5m (5ft 1in) in her stockinged feet. Yulestar is an enormous gelding, towering at just over 16 hands.

Yet they are the best of mates - although it's hard to know exactly who is leading whom. She hops in the sulky and he literally pulls her around the track.

"Mum's so little and he just picks her up and takes her where he wants to go," says her daughter, Bernadette Smith. "Yuley has a wicked sense of humour. He plays around with her."

But the relationship between the trainer and the Interdominion champion has not always been fun.

Last August, Yulestar bucked and kicked Lorraine out of the cart. She is lucky to be alive.

"It was a terrible smash. I suffered violent migraines and I was going blind in my right eye," she says.

"I've come right now, but I haven't been out on him since.

"He can be a bit naughty - he's got a kick that has put men in hospital. But he can be lovable - only when it suits him."

Right now, everyone loves Yulestar. After winning the Interdom grand final in Brisbane last weekend, he has earned legend status.



But when Lorraine and Ron married, they could not afford their own horses.

"We had to race other people's horses that were no good," says Ron. By 1964, they had scraped together enough to buy their first horse for 100 guineas. Durado won 16 races in his career.

Things picked up from there, and five years ago Ron came home from the weaning sales with a $9000 gelding named Yulestar.

"I thought, what a nice-looking horse, what a nice name," Lorraine says. Ron was so busy looking after the gallopers that the attractive gelding became Lorraine's concern.

Between the Nolans and driver Tony Shaw, they have created a star.

In the Nolan house, now cluttered with gold cups and finish-line photos, most of the credit goes to the grandmother of four. "We're really proud of her. She works so hard and she's had a lot of flak in a man's world," says Bernadette. "She's little but she's also very competitive."

Lorraine has no plans to train another pacer. Her accident has made her realise there is more to life. "Ron is 68, so when he retires I will too."

Ron cannot see that day coming in a hurry.