By MICHAEL GUERIN
MELBOURNE - The gamblers were the big winners in the Hunter Cup on Saturday night.
The gamblers. Not the punters. The punters got completely savaged as Christian Cullen turned into an equine pinball, bouncing from one rival to the next in a near-perfect example of how not to win a $A400,000 race.
But long before the action started in the betting ring at Moonee Valley on Saturday night, two serious gambles took place. And when Yulestar demolished his Hunter Cup opponents they paid huge dividends.
The gamblers were Taranaki owner-trainers Ron and Lorraine Nolan and Cambridge driver Tony Shaw. They gambled on each other and gambled on the giant brat called Yulestar.
The Nolans come from the harness racing backwater of Hawera, where open class pacers are as rare as Ferraris.
The Nolans are farm-based galloping trainers who decided to dabble in harness racing a decade ago. The skills learnt with thoroughbreds soon produced results and they took their first gamble.
The headed to the Karaka sales and spent serious money to buy an overgrown yearling who turned out to be Yulestar. A problem child with a huge motor, he tested the Nolans' patience with his erratic raceday behaviour early in his career but in the last six months has put it all together.
But a horse this good doesn't go unnoticed, even when you hide him away in Hawera. The offers soon started coming. They reached six figures and kept on going. By the time Yulestar won a junior free-for-all at the New Zealand Cup meeting the offer had reached $350,000.
That is a lot of money for a horse cursed to be born in the era of Christian Cullen and Courage Under Fire. But the Nolans gambled again. They turned the money down.
It was the right move and not just because of the $A250,000 winning cheque on Saturday night.
"This is the greatest thing that has happened to me, to us," said Lorraine Nolan, who could pretty safely declare herself the only 60-year-old woman to train a Hunter Cup winner.
"We thought about selling him but why should we do all the hard work and let some other people have all the fun. I am so glad we kept him because money can't buy this."
While the Nolans gambled on Yulestar, Shaw gambled on himself.
Five years ago he was working at the meat works, driving in one or two races a week and dreaming about nights like Saturday night.
Then he decided to take the chance. To go out on the circuit, drive any horse he was offered and back himself to make it in the unforgiving world of freelance reinsmen.
Success didn't come easy. Most of his drives came on the Central Districts circuit, where returns rarely cover expenses. But he discovered a diamond in the rough.
After Yulestar had fallen in one race and then finished tailed off in another, champion driver Maurice McKendry jumped off him to drive a tighter-assessed runner in a lowly Taranaki race. Shaw jumped on and never looked back.
Shaw taught Yulestar to race and Yulestar taught Shaw what it was like to drive a good horse. They learned their lessons well.
Yulestar's manners have improved to the stage he ignored a false start on Saturday night to step well in the restart and Shaw did the rest, positioning him perfectly in the one-one.
"I couldn't believe my luck. I mean, three days ago I am driving maidens on the grass at Wanganui and then here I am, sitting in the one-one in the Hunter Cup," said the 31-year-old.
"I knew from there he would be hard to beat but actually winning was something else. When I was coming back to the winner's circle I didn't really believe I had won the Hunter Cup."
Shaw's development in the last five years means his place as a professional freelance driver is secure but his trademark cockiness shouldn't be mistaken for arrogance.
"I know 10 other drivers I could have put on that horse tonight and he still would have won," he said.
"I also know that I probably won't win another Hunter Cup, in fact, I might never drive in another one.
"But they can't take this one way from me."
Racing: Gamblers smile as Yulestar grabs Cup
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