By MICHAEL GUERIN
At least Tony Shaw had the guts to admit it.
In the greatest moment of his career - the moment he has craved since childhood - Shaw could have glossed things over.
He could have pretended that he always knew Yulestar was going to win yesterday's New Zealand Cup. He could have conveniently forgotten the doubts that have nagged him, the doubts so many members of the harness racing industry have had muttered under the breath.
But he didn't. He told it as it was.
"I have to admit I have sometimes been critical of the way Lorraine trains this horse but she just keeps proving us wrong," said Shaw as Yulestar paraded before the adoring fans that made him favourite.
"She could not have turned this horse out any better. He was so fit he really just jogged it."
Shaw was alluding to the greatest doubt many people have had about Yulestar - the fact he was trained by a 60-year-old grandmother in the harness racing outback of Hawera. And a galloping trainer to boot.
The cynics have wondered how this little, unassuming lady could control and perfect this giant animal. There was always the worry Yulestar would not get the hard yards an elite pacer needs to grind out a world record 3200m like yesterday's cup. Maybe Nolan would pamper him like she does her gallopers.
Most of our best trainers and drivers have expressed that doubt at one time or another. Usually it was off the record sort of stuff - this racing industry is too small for openly go around doubting people.
Two years ago many people - including me - thought Yulestar would be better off in one of the big stables where he could learn the tricks of the trade. To learn from a master, instead of a maiden trainer.
Obviously plenty of overseas buyers thought so as the offers for the big gelding got larger and larger as Australian trainers sought to buy the horse everybody thought they could improve.
Of yeah, the doubters were there. Make no mistake. But now they are gone. Yulestar crushed them.
Yulestar was given a preparation for yesterday's race that would have done any Purdon, Jones or Butt proud.
Nolan didn't screw him down too tightly for his early season Auckland races, knowing the trip south and subsequent races would trim the fat off his mammoth frame.
She then counter-balanced that by not easing up on him when he paced a world record in the Ashburton Flying Stakes. She knew this year Yulestar was horse enough to cop a hard preparation and she gave it to him.
So how did the little lady feel after climbing to the top of harness racing's Everest?
"I am very proud. Of the horse, of our driver and of course proud to train the winner. I am also happy for all the supporters we have in Hawera," she said.
There were no boasts, no I told you sos. Just a modest woman who set herself a goal and achieved it.
But Yulestar didn't just achieve that goal for her yesterday. He surpassed it.
Because the magnitude of what he did at Addington yesterday does not sink into until you analyse what a 3200m world record means.
New Zealand's two biggest harness races are over 3200m. That means the Cardigan Bays, Young Quinns, Chokins and Christian Cullens of the past have had to win the biggest races of their career over 3200m.
All the legends have had numerous shots at this distance yet now Yulestar holds the world record. Faster than the legends.
Chokin held the old mark at 3:59.5, set in an Auckland Cup when other set the pace and he outfinished them. Yulestar set all the pace and won by three and a quarter lengths in 3:59.1. He jogged a world record.
It confirmed what Nolan had suspected since she brought Yulestar back into work. He is bigger and better than last season.
And now she intends to prove it.
With our greatest cup heading to Hawera, Yulestar is going hunting for some more trophies.
Nolan and her husband Ron will decide today whether to accept an invitation to next week's $A400,000 Miracle Mile in Sydney.
If they go to Sydney then they will miss Friday's NZ Free-For-All. If they bypass Sydney, which seemed likely last night, they will instead take aim at the Auckland Cup on December 15.
After that there are the Hunter and Victoria Cups before the Brisbane Interdominions. And then he can do it all again next season.
But whatever road Yulestar takes one thing seems assured, he will carry his stakes earning from the $745,000 he has ammassed after yesterday to well past the $1 million mark before this season's end.
Not a bad return for the $9000 the Nolans paid for the oversized yearling at Karaka five years ago.
Lorraine Nolan performed three miracles yesterday.
She turned a $9000 buy into a budding millionaire. She turned a giant former goofball pacer into a New Zealand Cup winner. And she turned her doubters into believers.
Racing: Resounding victory crushes doubting critics
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