Champion trainer Chris Waller has opened up on Queen Elizabeth’s fascination with Australia’s fastest horse, revealing Her Majesty was in awe of Nature Strip’s brute strength in the months before her death.
Waller, one of just a handful of Australians to receive an invite to the Queen’s funeral, said his conversations with the racing-obsessed matriarch included questions about Nature Strip. The world’s best sprinter won at Royal Ascot in June.
Queen Elizabeth didn’t attend the famed horse racing carnival this year because of her declining health, but she spoke to Waller about Nature Strip following the horse’s demolition of his King’s Stand Stakes rivals.
“I had the opportunity to speak to her after he won at Royal Ascot and she was amazed at how big he is and how powerful he is,” Waller told the Herald.
“Even Princess Anne said exactly the same thing, and she’s a great horse person. She was there the day he won and she was just blown away by just how big, strong and healthy he looked.”
Queen Elizabeth watched the Royal Ascot carnival on television from Windsor Castle as Nature Strip became the first Australian-trained horse to win at the week-long meeting since Black Caviar in 2012.
Chris Waller, Nature Strip and the late Queen Elizabeth II.
Waller previously trained for the Queen and would have private conversations with her about Australian racing, which extended to Nature Strip, as she slowly withdrew from the public spotlight. She died last month aged 96.
Waller presented Her Majesty with a shoe Winx wore in her final race start in the 2019 Queen Elizabeth Stakes, and former prime minister Scott Morrison said the head of state was excited “like a schoolgirl” when he gifted her a signed biography of the wonder mare shortly after the horse’s retirement.
Waller couldn’t make Queen Elizabeth’s funeral alongside Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Governor-General David Hurley and Australian of the Year Dylan Alcott after a COVID-19 related family illness.
But he will have his first starter for King Charles III when Chalk Stream, who previously raced in Australia for the Queen, contests the St Leger Stakes at Royal Randwick on Saturday.
Jockeys Hugh Bowman (Lost And Running) and James McDonald (Nature Strip) with The Everest trophy.Credit:Dan Gray
Two hours later Nature Strip will start the shortest-priced favourite in the history of the $15 million The Everest as he tries to defend his title in the world’s richest turf race.
Asked about his Royal Ascot experience, Waller said: “It was amazing.
“That wasn’t just for me, but everybody in the ownership group. We felt like ambassadors for Australia and New Zealand. It was the off-season for racing [in Australia] and all the attention here was on it. People got up in the middle of the night to watch and it was really special.
“And The Everest is now a race that is spoken about among trainers on the other side of the world and they’re amazed at how it’s going.”
Nature Strip’s jockey James McDonald spoke of the royal family’s affection for horse racing during his overseas experience.
“They just love the horses,” he said. “For Nature Strip to do what he did and demolish them [was incredible] because it was really nerve racking going over there.
“If he got beat, it’s not just a two-hour flight home, it was a huge journey. We didn’t know where he fitted in to the pecking order and how he was going to travel. I can safely say he has never worked so well in his life leading into that race. He was unbelievably good.”
Nature Strip is part owned by legendary All Blacks coach Steve Hansen and can take his career earnings to more than $25 million – within reach of Winx – if he banks the $6.2 million first prize cheque on Saturday.
About 40,000 people are expected to flock to Royal Randwick for the first running of The Everest without COVID-19 crowd restrictions since 2019.
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