World's Best Sprinter Is Australia's Classy Freak Of Nature

Golden Grove Farm sold the horse for $90,000 at the 2016 Inglis Premier Yearling Sale and sent it to trainer Robert Smerdon.Retired businessman Rod Lyons has been there from the start, having purchased 85% of the horse before selling down part of his stake to various interests, including a New Zealand-based group featuring Sir Stephen Hansen, a World Cup-winning rugby coach.

She spoke to us about what it meant to be a part of the experience and rollercoaster that has been the world's best sprinter's career, discussing her accomplishments, accolades, and what was to come.

"When you watch racing as I do and see a standout, like any sportsman, you go back and see that person stand out in his sport, and you take real recognition and wonder, "Well, what makes them so much better than the others?""We posed the same question with Nature Strip—what makes him so much better?" Lyons said.

"He's just a magnificent specimen and a magnificent beast." It is a wonderful, wonderful thrill to be a part of the team that races him.

Across his career, he has been named Victorian Horse of the Year (2020) as well as Australian Racehorse of the Year twice (2019–20 and 2021–2022), Australian Sprinter of the Year three years running (2019–20, 2020–21, and 2021–2022), and most significantly, the World’s Best Sprinter (2020–2021 and 2022–2031). As is the case with any recognition and awards that surround Nature Strip, it is something the ownership group and entire team around him are proud of, as Lyons said.

"Look, it's something that the entire ownership group is very proud of. It’s a great thrill to be recognised by the whole of Australia and the whole of the world.

"It's not just recognition of the horse; we as owners take the credit, but it's recognition of Chris Waller and his team, James McDonald, Studie, who rides him, Sophie, and the rest of the gang at Waller's—they deserve a lot of credit for all of that."

"They’ve kept this horse sound and in the form of his life for so long."

On his third attempt, he broke through to win The Everest, the world's richest turf race, a day and victory that Lyons says will be remembered for a long time.

"First and foremost, the Everest is a fantastic day, and it's had a fantastic build-up."

"Racing New South Wales through Peter Vlandys does a fantastic job and looks after you in the run-up to the race."It’s like the lead-up to a big game, a grand final, or a major sporting event.

"To be there and to be part of the 12 horses, the best sprinters in the world, and to compete at that level and to win it again, it's just like a dream." Did this really happen? "It was a wonderful buzz."

Nature Strip won his first race as a three-year-old 1000-metre maiden at Mornington in October 2017, before being beaten in his next and first metropolitan start, but winning his next three races before being beaten twice in the autumn and finishing the season pulling up poorly.

In the next year, he would be transferred to the stables of Darren Weir and win his first four starts with him, including an impressive six-length win over Group 1 winner Sunlight in Adelaide. Following that, he won his first group race, the Group 2 WFA McEwen Stakes at Moonee Valley, earning him a spot in The Everest for 2018. He would fade badly in the Group One Moir Stakes later that year and be stripped of his Everest slot before being spelled.

2019 saw the renaissance of Nature Strip after the horse was transferred to a new trainer for the second time, that trainer being the country’s best in Chris Waller.

Under Waller, at his first start, he would be victorious in the Group 2 Rubiton Stakes before another poor showing in the Oakleigh Plate.

With a career that has seen patterns, it has been mostly success that has surrounded Nature Strip, and last year, he won the TJ Smith Stakes before going overseas to claim victory in the King’s Stand Stakes.

Trainer Chris Waller was as impressive as ever, declaring that the best was yet to come for his star.

after winning nine Group One features.

"Nature Strip has just gotten better and better," Waller said.

"He is learning about his racing and enjoying his racing, and that was the difference between the horse from his early days." He used to try to get things done in a hurry all the time. But then he realised he could sit off them and still beat his rivals. "It has been a privilege to be a part of this horse."

Throughout his career, he has

Lyons and diehard fans of the sport, knowing and understanding the ability of this true and utter champion, would dismiss him as one of the most polarising racehorses, even being labelled overrated or out of his depth at times.

"Look, I find that almost laughable when people still have a go at him about his consistency.

"He is a very consistent horse; he has something like a 57% win ratio and a 70% or so place ratio." It annoys me when I hear that because, as you say, he has 22 wins and has won nearly $21 million in prize money.

"He is a wonderful horse! He races against the best sprinters in the world every time he races. Sure, sometimes he is going to be beaten, but just like us, humans, you're going to get beaten."

His record speaks for itself with those massive nine Group One victories, 41 starts for 22 wins, and a further nine placings, doing it at home in Australia and abroad, as he did dominantly at Royal Ascot in The King’s Stand. a moment the owner commented on as something he will never forget.

"I still get shivers when we watch the replay; it was just enormous to be so close to the now-King and royalty." I better shut up because I will rave on for hours about that race. It was absolutely sensational.

"Those nine Group One races were fantastic, but I'd have to say Royal Ascot." Going halfway around the world with forty hours on the plane and having to settle into a new environment and taking on the best horses in the world and donkey licking them in such a magnificent place like that.

"When you walk into the place, you can almost smell the history! "That win there amongst all the lords and ladies and royalty was something that will live with us for the rest of our days."

I asked him to describe the star in one word, to which Lyons responded with the request to use two.

"I try and describe him in two, if you don't mind: a champion and a freak! What makes Don Bradman so good, and what makes our golfers great? What made Rod Laver the greatest tennis player of his time? "They're all freaks!"

"He is a freak of nature—excuse the pun—but he is a magnificent specimen, and he is a beautiful-looking thoroughbred when you look at him." "I think he’s just got something that I don’t know when you look at the gene pool—what makes him so much better than the others."

As an 8-year-old who has achieved so much for the team and showcased his immense talent on the world stage, the ownership is aware that it, unfortunately, cannot last forever.

"Look, we hope it continues, but we’ve got to understand that it does not go on forever; they are not machines."

"He is lightly raced for an eight-to-nine-year-old and is pretty sound, with a few niggling injuries that they all get and we all get, let's be honest."

The plans for the current season are set as his campaign begins to keep racking up wins and building on that legacy that will last in the racing history of Australia and the world.

"The plan is to go first in the Lightning, then on to the Challenge Stakes in Sydney, and then on to the TJ; from there, he will decide how he is and what the programme will be." There is a big gap between the TJ in April and the Spring Carnival. "Chris will decide how he comes through those races and where he goes from there."

Nature Strip has won three T.J. Smith stakes, an honour only shared with the great grey Chautauqua. The team around the horse understands what a record-breaking fourth win in this race would mean to his legacy.

"It would be enormous because to be able to break his record would be something very special."

I found it hard not to ask the question that all fans of the sport of kings had been asking, "Should we be paying up on our subscriptions to see the programme at Royal Ascot this year?"

He grinned in answer.

"Look, never say never." Unfortunately, COVID cost us a couple of trips to Royal Ascot, but again, "never say never."