An era has ended with Chris Waller announcing the retirement of champion sprinter Nature Strip.

The decision was made almost immediately after the nine-year-old finished down the track in the Concorde Stakes (1000m) at Randwick on Saturday with Waller convening a spontaneous press conference to confirm the news.

Standing alongside Nature Strip’s majority owner Rod Lyons, Waller paid tribute to a grand horse who at his best was almost unbeatable over sprint journeys winning three TJ Smith Stakes (2021-21-22), the 2021 The Everest and giving the top trainer his first Royal Ascot win in last year’s Group 1 King’s Stand Stakes.
Nature Strip retires as the winner of 22 of his 44 starts along with nine minor placings and more than $20.7 million in prizemoney.