As James McDonald watched the barrier draw reveal for The Everest on his balcony on Tuesday night, he kept getting happier.
He was jumping for joy as the barriers were revealed in sequential order and the defending champion Nature Strip came out last.
“It’s a brilliant draw, I couldn’t be happier,” McDonald said. “It will mean he is happy, he likes the room out there. With Nature Strip I would rather 12 than one or two.
“It gives him time to find his rhythm and when he does that we have seen what he can do.”
McDonald will not have to think too much about riding Nature Strip at Randwick on Saturday. He has the template from the gelding’s last two Randwick 1200m victories to work with.
He will have Eduardo a couple of gates to his inside to follow across, which makes it a similar assignment to last year’s Everest when Nature Strip jumped from gate 10 and found the front.
James McDonald give Nature Strip a pat after winning his third TJ Smith at Randwick in April.Credit:Getty
McDonald can also go and look at the eight-year-old’s third TJ Smith Stakes win, when he had gate 11 and once again found the front to blow away the best sprinters in the country.
Nature Strip boasts a sustained speed these days that few can match, but add the change of gear he has when he is comfortable, which comes at McDonald’s request, and he has proven unbeatable at 1200m since 2020.
“It’s his best trip,” McDonald said. “He is in career-best order – he just looks terrific.
“Waller and the team have him looking amazing. I’m very happy.”
It makes the $2.15 Sportsbet had pushed Nature Strip out to in betting for The Everest even more attractive. There is just a confidence surrounding McDonald when he talks about the star sprinter.
“His condition is outstanding, his movement is outstanding, his headspace is outstanding,” McDonald said. “He has the best gate for him and the ground won’t worry him. Everything is just great.”
Nature Strip, who is running in a record fourth Everest, is clearly the best sprinter on form, but his jockey might be on an even hotter streak. McDonald won his sixth group 1 for the season when Madame Pommery took the Thousand Guineas at Caulfield on Wednesday. He has won one of every four races he has ridden in since August.
“It’s been a good start to the season, I’m just getting on the right horses,” McDonald said. “When you have [Cox Plate favourite] Anamoes and Nature Strips to look forward to it’s pretty good.
“But you know everyone is thinking about how they can beat you.”
Eduardo (right) is the only horse in Saturday’s field to have beaten Nature Strip.Credit:Getty
The Everest market indicates Lost And Running and Eduardo, at $7.50 and $8.50, are ones to worry about for Nature Strip and the pair will take markedly different approaches to try to beat him.
“Eduardo was going to push forward from whatever draw he got, he has the speed and we need to use it,” his trainer Joe Pride said.
Eduardo is the only horse in The Everest field to have beaten Nature Strip. He has had his measure on four occasions but never at Saturday’s 1200m distance. However, he and Joyful Fortune, who is also a leader, might be the horses to bring the swoopers into play if they can take Nature Strip out his comfort zone.
Lost And Running trainer John O’Shea knows his six-year-old be chasing and want the leaders to go hard to expose Nature Strip late.
“If we are going to get Nature Strip it will be in the last 50 metres,” O’Shea said. “If you look at last year’s Everest, the race changed complexity from the 100 to 50 very quickly; he looked home [Nature Strip] then the backmarkers came really quickly.
“We ran fourth and I think with another 20 yards we are second to Masked Crusader. And I think we have a better horse this year.”
