KROPP STABLE TAKES OUT THREE WINS AT BIRDSVILLE

By Graham Potter | Sunday, September 4, 2022

The 2022 trip to Birdsville was trainer Matt Kropp’s third visit to the Birdsville Cup Carnival, a two-day race meeting which has long held an iconic event status … albeit as much for the off-track high-jinx that personifies the ‘everyone will have a good time’ spirit that engulfs the town with the arrival of hoards of visitors … then it does from any thoroughbred action on the racetrack.

“We had some placings in our first year there (in 2016),” said Kropp, and the next time (in 2019) we placed and got a win at Bedourie on the way back, but we hadn’t won at Birdsville before.”

This time, things would change.

The Kropp stable took five runners to Birdsville, two of which (Laurie and Salazar) came away as winners with the five-year-old chestnut Laurie putting an exclamation mark on a successful trip by winning races on both days of the carnival.

“You have choose the horses you take to Birdsville carefully,” explained Kropp.

“Firstly, you have to select ones you think will be able to handle the travel. It can be up to a twenty hours trip.

“When you get there, all of the horses are side by side … not in stables where they can’t mess with one another, so you have got to have ones that can get along.

“Conditions can be tough. We’ve copped mud twice when we have been out there. The first time was on our first visit … and that was very bad with the flooding … and, under normal circumstances, you have the dust to deal with … and the temperature.”

“Laurie was an ideal horse to do the trip. He is just so tough,” said Kropp.

“Salazar is going good. I thought she might have been one that might have been a bit cantankerous to go travelling, but we took the chance. We were able to isolate her from the others a little bit and she travelled really well … and the experience and the trip will have done her the world of good.”
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Laurie’s two wins came in a $17 000 Class 3 Plate over 1020m (on Saturday, September 3) and in a $17 000 Class 5 Handicap over 1200m … on both occasions keeping the same horse, Real Valentina, back in second place … while taking his record to six wins from twenty-three starts.

Salazar won a $20 000 BM65 Handicap over 1400m (on Sunday, September 4) … in the process claiming a third successive victory after saluting in his two previous starts at Roma.

The Kropp stables other runners at Birdville were Learning Curve (who claimed a second and a third place finish), Wait a Minute (who finished third on two occasions) while Bernie’s Tiger finished fourth.

The Kropp winners at Birdsville were ridden by Alisha Donald (Laurie x2), who can now claim a two from two record on the gelding as she had not ridden the horse before … and Sarah Robbins (Salazar), who had also partnered the mare to those two wins at Roma.

The experience that only Birdsville can provide … and the no small matter of saddling winners and banking a useful $41 650 in prize-money made it a very worthwhile trip ... both on a business and a fun level.

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