Why Nature Strip has taken Waller to new heights as a trainer

Nature Strip is Chris Waller’s greatest training achievement – superior even to the champion mare Winx and Melbourne Cup winner Verry Elleegant, which won the big one on the back of an unconventional Australasian preparation.

Win, lose or draw in Saturday’s $15 million The Everest, Nature Strip has produced performances this year that earns Waller that acclaim.

Sure, Winx, a contender for Australia’s best-ever racehorse, notched 33 straight wins and Verry Elleegant, headstrong and in many ways difficult, was given the champion title by some, so why does Nature Strip, an eight-year-old gelding, take precedence?

Nature Strip has topped the world sprint ratings at a vintage when most are on the slide. Has there ever been a horse with so much tooth so fast over 1200 metres?

With Winx, the trainer had the filly from the outset, putting her onto the conveyor belt system or method that generates development and is so successful. The ability was always there and Waller had the time and expertise to develop it to the full.

Go back to around 2019. Horse manure hit the fan over Darren Weir, the Victorian trainer, due to highly illegal battery devices (jiggers) to stimulate enthusiasm, located on his property. Hundreds of thoroughbreds had to find new stables.

James McDonald and star sprinter Nature Strip take the TJ Smith Stakes at Randwick in April.Credit:Getty Images

“I don’t know whether to take them?” Waller told me on a Rosehill Saturday regarding those offered to him, thinking aloud more than seeking advice. Obviously, he wouldn’t need the opinion of a tabloid hack.

“Well if you don’t, plenty will,” I replied.

Perhaps Waller was concerned how the horses had been treated. Galvanised by fear was an opinion being offered by the perceived Weir operation. For mine Weir was a top horseman and while Waller took Nature Strip and Verry Elleegant to greatness, Weir left him with hardly frazzled subjects.

Before Weir, Nature Strip had three other trainers: Robert Smerdon, Robert Hickmott and John Sadler, all highly competent tradesmen with Group 1 achievements. Nature Strip was fast but also had breathing problems. With manipulation, time and James McDonald, Waller has refined him into a speed machine who gives rivals a stitch. Note the gear, fore and aft: tongue-tie, lugging bit around his head plus the rear barrier extension.

Once horses over six were listed officially as “a”, indicating generally “over the hill” – not seven, eight, nine or over, which is the current situation.

Of course Eduardo, one of Nature Strip’s rivals on Saturday, is a nine-year-old and last season notched a decision over the Waller speedster. Eduardo, though, never gained world acclaim like Nature Strip whose Royal Ascot domination in the King’s Stand Stakes is a vision splendid.

Black Caviar was a champion and a better horse but not at Royal Ascot, although with good reason. Nature Strip has produced champion performances but not enough to hold the title. Whether one rates a horse a champion is subjective but the period of his brilliance doesn’t compare with that of Winx, Black Caviar, Vain or Todman.

But they didn’t zing at the same vintage. I often reflect on Tommy Smith’s opinion about which I personally testify: “Old horses are like old men – too many complaints [aches and pains].”

Yes, the imports such as Cascadian, an eight-year-old which is flying and is favourite for the Craven Plate at Randwick on Saturday, race older but overseas horses are not tested too hard, too early.

Of course, neither Nature Strip and Eduardo raced as two-year-olds but even Eduardo is not the most ancient competitor in a group 1 today: Sound is a 10-year-old stallion, a rarity, in the $5m Caulfield Cup, chicken feed compared to The Everest.

Vintage Crop was one of the more impressive modern Caulfield Cup winners two years back and took the Melbourne Cup without a (once-deemed necessary) 2400-metre race in her campaign.

Alas in her two starts in France she has lacked the Australian tenacity. Maybe she is a seven-year-old, her instincts are for the stud, and she hasn’t acclimatised in Europe or she just misses Waller.

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