Yishay worth the wait for Nicole Luke

By Jordan Gerrans

For trainer Nicole Luke, it took a little while to sink in what her small team had achieved on Saturday afternoon on the Polytrack at the Gold Coast.

Luke prepares a barn of around seven, prioritizing a hands-on approach with her gallopers.

She does not have any stable staff and completes all the work alongside her partner Paul Kingsford.

Around a year ago, a maiden galloper from south of the border lobbed in the Luke stable with four starts to his name, but he had not been at the races for the past 12 months at that point. 

It was May of 2022 when the horse in question – Yishay – last faced the starter.

More than two full years later, the five-year-old returned to the track for the first time on Saturday and did so in style, scoring by more than two lengths to break his maiden status in unlikely fashion.

As Luke and Kingsford have been living it day-to-day over the last year with Yishay, at first they did not quite click that a horse winning first-up after more than two years was a pretty big deal.

“I probably did not realize how big of feat it was until we spoke to a few people after the races,” Luke said.

“I thought that I didn’t care what the result was on Saturday.

"Just him going around without a bar, I would have felt like I had done my job. The rest was up to him.”

Under the urgings of Boris Thornton, the son of Capitalist was on the fence near the back of the field approaching the home turn.

The senior hoop weaved a passage through the field and once Yishay found some clear air, he shot through and won nicely.

Yishay has been through the stables of Anthony and Sam Freedman, Clayton Douglas and Natalie Jarvis before he eventually landed with Luke.

The talent was never a question for Yishay, but as Luke details, his mind and emotions can get the best of him at times.

“He came to us after he had a few barrier and racing manner bars,” the Gold Coast trainer said.

“He just needed time and being in a smaller stable would have helped him because he may have just got lost in the bigger numbers at other stables.

“The horse’s ability has never been an issue, it is more just giving him confidence as he is quite emotional and is scared of a lot of things.

“With my horses, I have a gentle environment with them and treat them more like show horses than race horses.

“We have just taken our time with him and given him confidence to get stronger. We gave him two trials last prep but he actually bled at his last trial, so he had to go out again.”

The second of those trials in October of last year was a smart one so it was a blow for the Luke stable to have to put him away again after it appeared they may have finally figured him out.

Luke has been training for six seasons and has 14 winners to her name after Yishay’s breakthrough on Saturday.

The young trainer gave much of the credit for the victory to her partner and track work rider Kingsford.

“Paul has done all the riding work with him and he is a little bit tricky this fella, Paul has worked really hard with him,” she explained.

“It is a credit to Paul’s riding as I would not have been able to get him there him on my own.

“Even still when he raced on Saturday, Boris said he was still quite green to race and you can quickly forget that as a five-year-old, he is still quite new to racing.

“It was not an overly strong race so we were confident in his ability of winning but it was just a matter of if he could contain his manners throughout the run.

“The last 20 odd metres he was sitting up on him so we still have not seen the horse pushed out yet either.”

The team will not rush their gelding and plan to find a Class 1 race for him in the coming weeks after he came through the run well.

Luke believes that while he won well over 1200 metres on Saturday, the gelding is searching for further trip after he was strong to the line.

Yishay is raced by ‘Epona Park’ which is run by Boost Juice tycoon Jeff Allis and wife Janine.

They also have winter carnival regular Tiger Shark at the Natalie McCall yard at the Sunshine Coast.

Kingsford is a long-time friend of Allis’ which helped the stable land the enigmatic galloper.

Luke also has Switzerland Sun – another maiden horse – in her stable owned by Epona Park.

“I would be happy to take the horses that do not fit the regime of Nat,” Luke said of the ownership group.

“He buys nice horses, they are bred well.

“There is always the odd horse that does not suit a big stable and we are happy to take them on.”