Racing: Fairytale seems all over in Yulestar camp

By MICHAEL GUERIN

The Yulestar fairytale lost its Prince Charming yesterday when driver Tony Shaw was sacked from the horse he has helped make a millionaire.

While co-owner Ron Nolan, whose wife Lorraine trains Yulestar, would not confirm Shaw had been sacked for the $350,000 New Zealand Trotting Cup on November 13, southern driver Peter Jones is almost certain to drive the defending champ.

Jones will partner Yulestar in next Wednesday's final cup trial at Addington and was last night trying to get out of a cup commitment to the Mark Purdon-trained Cigar.

All of this has come as a huge shock to Shaw, who was informed he may have been sacked off the horse by a friend late Tuesday night.

He rang Nolan who was disturbed the news had reached Shaw.

"He told me that if any decision like that was going to be made then I would be the first to know," said Shaw. "But later in the conversation he told me another driver would be handling him in the cup trial.

"I suppose I wouldn't have been so upset if I hadn't heard about it through other people.

"But I am very disappointed they didn't ring me. I suppose that shows just what they think of me as a person and my input to Yuley's career."

That input has been unmistakable, and depending on who you ask, has on occasions extended far beyond racenight.

Shaw has driven Yulestar in 14 of his 19 wins, including all of his important victories.

Shaw was a battling but always popular horseman when he joined forces with Yulestar, a difficult three-year-old who had been turned down for another horse by Maurice McKendry.

Shaw helped guide him from there to harness racing's elite millionaires' club.

He did so with three perfect drives:

* He secured the one-one for the entire race on his way to winning the $A400,000 Hunter Cup last year.

* Shaw managed to get Yulestar into the lead in under a lap after starting from the 10m backmark on his way to a world record in last season's New Zealand Trotting Cup.

* Then the unforgettable Interdominion Grand Final win when Shaw steered Yulestar from a hopeless four back on the markers at the 600m mark to grab Atitagain in the shadows of the post.

Shaw's role in that success was more than just as a driver after he had driven all the serious trackwork in the week leading to the Grand Final.

Trainers at the same Queensland stables as the Yulestar camp confirmed to the Herald yesterday Shaw was an instrumental part of the Grand Final preparation.

But Ron Nolan is furious at such suggestions.

"Lorraine trained him for the Grand Final and nobody else. All Tony did was drive him in trackwork. Any other suggestion is completely wrong."

Yulestar's form has been below par this season and while there were signs of improvement when he ran ninth in the Kaikoura Cup on Monday, he is not the horse he was 12 months ago.

The Nolans were asked to discuss Yulestar's fitness with stipendiary stewards after that race and Ron admitted yesterday that the pressure was getting to them.

"I was going to drive him in the cup trial but we decided that with all the pressure we should get a top driver to do it.

"At the moment I won't name that driver. I will just call him Driver B.

"We are not thinking past the cup trial and if he doesn't go well in the cup trial we may be going home.

"But I am not saying Driver B will drive him in the cup."

No matter what name you give him "Driver B", as Nolan calls him, is Peter Jones, father of last season's premiership winning reinsman Mark Jones.

Peter Jones is a brilliant reinsman who drove Hands Down and Borana to win the New Zealand Cup. He has a stunning catch driving record as he showed when reining Tupelo Rose to win last season's Messenger.

"If he is that good wouldn't we be smart to put him on," said Nolan yesterday, this time dropping the "Driver B" tag.

While the pressure built around the Nolans yesterday their cloud did have a silver lining. A veterinary examination showed no sign of the lung infection Yulestar was diagnosed with last week.

"As far as we are concerned he is perfect. Everything is beautiful," said Nolan.

But regardless of what happens on New Zealand Cup day, everything will not be beautiful.

The story of the giant horse from the backblocks trained by a grandmother and driven by a one-time battler who won the Interdominions was harness racing's fairytale.

And nobody likes fairytales with unhappy endings.