Cover image courtesy of The Image Is Everything
Last week Lucy Yeomans, who trains in partnership with Lloyd Kennewell, entered the Magic Millions Gold Coast complex to retrace her steps from 12 months before on the hunt for another stable star in the mould of Invincible Woman (I Am Invincible).
Seeing the first yearling she purchased as a trainer take her place at the starting line for the R. Listed Magic Millions 2YO Classic this coming Friday is, for Yeomans, the culmination of over a decade's work in the industry.
Rising through the ranks
Training racehorses was not an original goal for Yeomans, who initially entered the racing world as a track rider to finance her true passion in eventing. Her hard work in the saddle saw her compete in eventing on the international stage and serve as a reserve on the Australian eventing team, and it was that same dedication and love of the horse that drove her up the ladder in the racing world.
Yeomans got her start under Colin and Cindy Alderson and rode for a number of trainers in Cranbourne before joining the stable of Ciaron Maher in 2013. Within Maher’s stable, Yeomans quickly progressed to being his travelling foreman and looking after horses like G1 Caulfield Cup winner Jameka (Myboycharlie {Ire}), whom she rode every day of the three-time Group 1-winning mare’s career.
A trackwork accident in 2017 grounded Yeomans. Over a year later, she still wasn’t back in action.
Lucy Yeomans riding track work
“I couldn’t ride anymore, and I didn’t know what to do,” Yeomans recalled. “And credit to Ciaron (Maher), he was very good, and he said, ‘You just decide what you want to do within the company, and we'll make a role for you.’”
When Dave Eustace was elevated to co-trainer with Maher at the start of the 2018/19 season, the Victorian assistant trainer spot offered a tantalising opportunity for progression. With the urging of Sydney assistant trainer Annabel Neasham, Yeomans dared to dream.
Yeomans recalled being resistant to the idea at first, “I said, ‘Oh no, I couldn't do that. I don't know what I'm doing.’ And she (Neasham) said, ‘Don't be stupid, you can do it. You're basically doing it now.’
“So I rang Ciaron and said, ‘What about me?’ And it snowballed from there.”
Lucy Yeomans and Ciaron Maher with Jameka | Image courtesy of Racing Photos
Yeomans served as assistant trainer until early 2023, spending over a decade working for the rapidly expanding Maher and Eustace team. She was part of the team that oversaw Gold Trip’s (Fr) (Outstrip {GB}) G1 Melbourne Cup campaign, and, unavoidably, ran into Lloyd Kennewell in the training tower at Caulfield. When Yeomans felt she had reached her ceiling in Maher’s stable, it was Kennewell that came to her with a proposition.
The right time to move
“It felt like the right decision moving forward for me,” Yeomans said. “Having a smaller team really appealed to me. I'm a bit of a control freak! I like knowing how every horse is all the time.”
A small stable of 30 to 35 horses suited Yeomans down to the ground, as did combining with someone that she had come to know well and respect. At the beginning of the 2023/24 season, she entered into a training partnership with Kennewell and they set about pooling their skillsets. Under Maher, Yeomans had developed a love for data collection and crosstraining to bring out the best in her team.
Lucy Yeomans | Image courtesy of Kennewell Racing
“Lloyd (Kennewell) is obviously a very established trainer in his own right, but he was keen to take some new ideas on board,” she said. “I love working horses in the heavy sand out the back in the sandhills and getting them fit that way. Doing less galloping, more sort of heavy sandwork and working on the treadmill to build their fitness up before they go to the races.
“We've sort of taken a little bit of what I do and a little bit of what Lloyd does and joined it together. And we're having some quite good results.”
After a string of black-type placings, the partnership celebrated their first stakes win in March with “quirky” Meridius (Extreme Choice) in the Listed C S Hayes Memorial Cup and trained the first winner Rosemont Stud’s Hanseatic with his daughter Tiz Worthy in December.
A little bit spicy
The following January, Kennewell and Yeomans headed to the Gold Coast to purchase their first yearlings together as a team.
“She was very elegant, very athletic,” Yeomans had been drawn to the dark bay daughter of I Am Invincible from the beginning. “Obviously, I Am Invincible is a stallion that both Lloyd (Kennewell) and I have had a lot of success with.”
The third foal of four-time winner Showcase (Big Brown {USA}), who placed twice at Listed level, was a standout on type and her older half-brother Ambassadorial (Fiorente {Ire}) has won two of his first three starts, but the team agreed that she was overall a little immature.
“We loved her. Ironically, we thought she would need more time, and we thought she would actually be out of our budget.”
“We loved her (Invincible Woman). Ironically, we thought she would need more time, and we thought she would actually be out of our budget.” - Lucy Yeomans
To their surprise, the filly did not make her reserve.
“We were pretty quick to run out the back when she passed in!” Yeomas recalled. “We were very excited.” The filly was quickly syndicated with Lizzie Jelfs and an all-women ownership group. Yeomans even managed to snag herself a share.
Still, the team was conservative with their expectations. She had seemed a backward type - but, on arrival in Victoria, the filly that would be named Invincible Woman (I Am Invincible), was anything but slow to come on.
“She was a little bit spicy,” Yeomans said. “She was quite full on - she was like that at the sales, and the breakers reported back the same thing. Once we got her down to the stables (at Cranbourne), she was pretty good, but still looked backward.”
Invincible Woman as a yearling | Image courtesy of Magic Millions
Invincible Woman followed the team’s tried and trusted education cycle, alternating a month in the stables then a month in the paddock, before coming back into town.
“This last preparation before the races, we thought it would be the same,” said Yeomans. “We thought we would get her to a jump-out, and then stop with her.”
The filly had other ideas, winning her first jump-out in style and licking the bowl clean the next day. She progressed to a second trial, with the team anticipating this to be the turning point - but the filly won that jump-out as well and was just as bright the following day.
“She’s just thrived and absorbed the pressure. The more we have done with her, the stronger she has gotten, the better she has looked. We had no other option but to go to the races.”
Lloyd Kennewell and Lucy Yeomans | Image courtesy of Kennewell Racing
Magic results
A standout win in the $250,000 Magic Millions VIC 2YO Classic at Caulfield Heath booked Invincible Woman’s passage to the Gold Coast and Yeomans travelled up with the filly in late December to get her acquainted with the environment. Matthew Palmer partnered her to a trial win on the Gold Coast track on the last day of 2024, sizzling home ahead of older horses by 1l.
Stabled in Group 1-winning jockey-turned-trainer Peter Robl’s complex, the filly is solely Yeomans’s charge and she spends her mornings and afternoons tending to her every need. The “bright, happy horse” has thrived in the Sunshine State ahead of her Classic tilt, and Yeomans is not too worried about the last minute postponement of the rest of last Saturday’s race card.
“She hasn’t changed much, she loves going to work every day,” she said. “With what I’m seeing in the stables, I’m very happy with her.
Invincible Woman winning the Magic Millions VIC 2YO Classic | Image courtesy of The Image Is Everything
“Obviously, the statistics are against us. She’s five weeks between runs and I don’t think any horse has won it at their second start, let alone five weeks in between.
“But I wasn’t upset when the races were moved back. She trialled really well on a Heavy track, but for her first time over 1200 metres, even if she were to win, I think it would have been a real gut-buster for her.”
A drying track falls in Invincible Woman’s favour. With most of the rest of the field in the same position after Saturday’s downpour, Yeomans knows the only way for this filly is forward.
Superstars in the making
Kennewell and Yeomans picked up nine yearlings on the Gold Coast this year, the standout of which for Yeomans was Lot 688, a Trapeze Artist filly out of Widden Stud’s draft. Her dam More Than A Legend (USA) (More Than Ready {USA}) descends from the family of Street Sense (USA) (Street Cry {Ire}) and has produced three winners from three runners to date.
“She just was really tough and athletic, and hopefully we can have some success with her,” said Yeomans, who bought her in partnership with friends of her parents, Kariba Racing, and Group 1 Bloodstock (FBAA) for $130,000.
The filly will be one of three women’s syndicates to be formed from the sale, which Yeomans was excited to offer again this year. Lizzie Jelfs, who was instrumental in Invincible Woman’s syndication last year, has joined in again with Lot 274, a Tagaloa daughter of Close To Me (I Am Invincible) from Yulong's draft, and Lot 314, a Tassort daughter out of Devine Shen (Nicconi), offered by Toolooganvale Farm.
Gallery: Some of the yearlings acquired by Kennewell Racing at the 2025 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale
“(Magic Millions is) the creme de la creme of horses,” in Yeoman's opinion. “It's the first sales of the year. Everyone's excited to buy, so you have to strike while everyone is excited!”
The Kennewell Racing team is all about quality over quantity. Will one of these fillies be the next Invincible Woman for Yeomans? Only time will tell, but she has her fingers crossed that she will be back next year on the Gold Coast with another juvenile rising star.
