A DALBY DOUBLE FOR KROPP RACING

By Graham Potter | Saturday, March 21, 2026

Matt Kropp and William Kropp both came away from the meeting at Dalby on March 21 with winners.

Matt Kropp sent Cardiologist out to claim his third career victory in a Class 4 Handicap in the fifth race on the card and the Kropp name was back in the winners’ enclosure four races later when the William Kropp trained Trusty Bandit saluted in a BM50 Handicap over 1400m.

These two wins achieved in different circumstances … both in set-up and execution.

Cardiologist came into the race off the back of three successive placed outings, finishing second in two of those starts. As a consequence of those showings, the son of Exceed and Excel started as a strong race favourite at the prohibitive odds of $1.50.

Cardiologist lived up to that expectation, romping in by a clearcut 4.46 lengths to extend a promising run of form.

By way of contrast, Trusty Bandit came into his race on the back of three successive luck-lustre efforts, finishing more than ten lengths back on each occasion. As a consequence of those showings, the son of Trusty Lad started at double figure odds of $11.

Trusty Bandit exceeded the expectations suggested by his starting price to claim a second career win, but again, unlike the runaway win of his stable companion, Trusty Bandit had to work hard for victory, before getting home by 0.89 lengths,
______________________________________________________________________

How the races panned out:
_____________________________________________________________________

Cardiologist: The four-year-old jumped into the lead at the break before Harrison Shaw chose to allow the second favourite Trapeze Warrior ($4.80) to take up the running while settling Cardiologist in second place, racing three-quarters-of-a-length to the outside of the leader.

Cardiologist briefly went back to third place, a little under two lengths off the speed in the start of the sweep to the home turn, but he was always moving at a comfortable gallop, and when Shaw started to rev up his mount approaching the home turn, Cardiologist wasted little time in going up to contest the lead.

Straightening four wide in a line of three at the top of the straight, Shaw asked Cardiologist to extend further and when Cardiologist hit the front with meaning with 180m left to run, the result was already without doubt, with the question then just becoming, how far Cardiologist would win by.

Trusty Bandit: The four-year-old grey was taken back from the number six barrier draw by jockey Chris Taylor at the start and raced in last place of the ten runners for the first 300m, ten lengths off the lead.

It was going to be a long chase, but, once he was asked to go forward from as far out as the 800m mark, Trusty Bandit was full of running, seemingly relishing the task of tackling the pack of runners in front of him.

By the time the field had 450m left to run, Trust bandit had halved the deficit to the leading runners … and he just kept coming, even shrugging off the supposed disadvantage of cornering seven wide, to roar into contention inside the final 200m.

There could be no let-up though as work still needed to be done to run down the $7 chance Gold Dazzler, but nothing was going to deny Trusty Bandit now and Gold Dazzler could not match the finishing effort of the Kropp trained runner, who edged away to secure the win.

Adding further merit to the win was the fact that Trusty Bandit did all of this under the steadying burden of 61kg.

Trusty Bandit’s previous win came in the $22 000 Plough Inn Cup over 1200m at the same venue back in September.

More articles