Chris Waller lands dramatic 1-2 in Lightning Stakes with Royal Ascot hopefuls

In a near-perfect result for trainer Chris Waller, his boom colt Home Affairs scored a narrow and dramatic win over his luckless stablemate Nature Strip in an enthralling Black Caviar Lightning at Flemington on Saturday.

The Coolmore-owned Home Affairs was left out in front with Eduardo after Nature Strip missed the start and then found trouble in the run, but Home Affairs found a gear late in the race when challenged by his stablemate to score a win for the ages.

Both Home Affairs and Nature Strip are earmarked to run on at Royal Ascot in June and their thrilling battle did little to douse the enthusiasm of their connections.

All eyes were on barriers five and six with market leaders Nature Strip and Eduardo drawn alongside each other and it was impossible to miss Nature Strip being crunched at the start by Eduardo and Profiteer, who both stepped sideways as the gates opened.

Sent off at 13-2, Home Affairs took full advantage of the 6-5 favourite Nature Strip's misfortune, featuring prominently throughout and clearly leading the field into the closing stages before surviving the gallant late challenge of Nature Strip, who went down by a short head.

Eduardo, who was up on the speed with Home Affairs, was third, just in front of brave mare Swats That, who narrowly missed a second consecutive third placing in the race.

Home Affairs is expected to have his next start in the Group 1 Newmarket Handicap over six furlongs at Flemington on March 12.

"A dead-heat would have been perfect," said Waller. "It would have been a fitting result if life was perfect. But you have to hand it to the winner as he was challenged and was very courageous as he did a lot of the work up on speed."

Nature Strip's luckless passage left Waller frustrated but full of admiration.

"Most horses don't recover from that, so it was pretty courageous," he said. "Not only did he put himself there at the 300 [metres], he fought the whole 300 too and it was the strongest Nature Strip has been considering what happened.

"Not only did he get one knock, he then got sandwiched as well, so for him to recover and run so close [was a shame]. I think it makes it disappointing for the connections but great for the horse, he's a very good horse, as simple as that."

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