Nature Strip has proven he can beat the world's best, blowing away the field at Royal Ascot on Wednesday morning in the King Stand Stakes.
The Chris Waller-trained horse came into the Group One (G1) race at the coveted five-day carnival as the second-favourite, with Golden Pal preferred by the bookmakers.
In the end, the star sprinter was only challenged by a rider-less Khaadem, who lost his jockey at the gates in a dramatic start.
Coming out of barrier 10, Nature Strip began fairly, hitting the lead by the 200-metre mark before jockey James McDonald confidently guided him home in dominant fashion.
"Salute a world-class sprinter."
— Racing.com (@Racing) June 14, 2022
NATURE STRIP becomes the fifth Australian to win the King's Stand Stakes ❤️💙💛#RoyalAscot @cwallerracing @mcacajamez pic.twitter.com/44gV3MNBuO
The result was the gelding's ninth G1 victory and provided trainer Chris Waller with his first Royal Ascot win.
"It was breathtaking," Waller said.
"It means a lot. We don't get a chance to come up and race against English, Irish, French and American horses, so to be able to bring a horse all this way and to win the way he did, it was pretty special.
"He's [been] a very good horse for a very long time. He's in the twilight of his career but he's just learned to be a racehorse now.
"He was a tricky horse early on but he's got better with his years, he's matured."
Nature Strip also made history as only the seventh Australian-trained sprinter to win at the famous carnival, following in the footsteps of Choisir (2003), Takeover Target (2006), Miss Andretti (2007), Scenic Blast (2009) and Black Caviar (2012).
Waller will now have to decide whether to race Nature Strip again on Saturday (Sunday morning AEST) in the G1 Platinum Jubilee Stakes, where he would compete against stablemate Home Affairs.
With McDonald already booked to ride Home Affairs, popular Australian jockey Jamie Kah would be on standby.
However, Waller did not confirm whether his star gelding would back up.
“We’ll get him through today,” he said.
“He’s still got a job to do in Australia. Hopefully, he comes through the race well, and we’ll make a decision later in the week. We won’t be making a decision today.”
