DALBY CUP 'KING' MAKES IT SIX WINS IN THE RACE

By Graham Potter | Saturday, September 17, 2022

Kropp Racing did not have any midweek runners between Saturday September 10 and Saturday September 17, but on September 17 they did come out firing again having nine runners contesting races at three different venues. (Matt sending out seven runners and William saddled two starters).

Matt Kropp would only have one winner on the day, but what an historical win it was when Festival Prince landed the Dalby Cup, a 1400m Open Handicap, by a decisive 2.80 length margin.

The win added to the legacy of the Kropp stable at Dalby’s Bunja Park racecourse.

Matt Kropp’s 2022 Dalby Cup win with Festival Prince was no less than his sixth success in the Dalby Cup.

He won it with Uncle Jan in 2008, and then did the double with Modern Al and Billy Goat in 2014 and 2015 … then saluted with Zip To The Moon in 2017 and Rosie Posie in 2020 before Festival Prince took Kropp’s Cup winning total to the half-a-dozen mark.

And, just for the record, Festival Prince’s win was Kropp’s one hundred and twenty-seventh winner at the track … and he still has the distinction of being the only trainer to have recorded one hundred winners at Dalby … underlining what a force the stable is when racing takes place at Dalby.
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Six of the nine runners sent into action by Kropp Racing on September 17 raced at Dalby who hosted a massive ten race card for their Cup day … and Festival Prince and I Promise You got the job done to give Kropp Racing back-to-back race wins on the day.

Festival Prince, who started third favourite in the Cup at $4.80, has always been a horse with notable ability.

He won no less than five in a row (between August 14, 2021 and November 6, 2021) in a perfect five race second preparation. Five of his ten runs subsequent to that were at the Metropolitan level (all at Eagle Farm) and the fact that he came into this race off the back of three runs in town (against the likes of Go Wandji) appeared to stand him in good stead in the Cup line-up.

Alisha Donald had Festival Prince racing just worse than midfield in the early part, caught wide, but the field was relatively bunched up so that, momentarily, left Festival Prince only just short of three lengths behind the leader before Donald, who couldn’t get in, elected to push forward on Festival Prince.

She quickly put Festival Prince up into third place … and then second … and Donald had the now frontrunning $3.30 favourite Bean Dancing firmly in Festival Prince’s sights approaching the 400m mark.

With 400m left to run Festival Prince was right alongside Bean Dancing and, within a matter of strides he moved effortlessly pass the main fancy.

On straightening, with a little over 200m left to run, The Tyler ($11) did emerge out of the pack as the only possible challenger to the Kropp runner, but Donald now set Festival Prince on his way, and the result was never in any serious doubt down the home stretch where Festival Prince asserted his authority to, in the end, score a relatively soft win by a clearcut 2.80 length margin.

He was simply too good for his opposition.
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While the Kropp family celebrated another Dalby Cup win, William Kropp wasn’t about to be left off the scoreboard.

In the race following the Cup, the young trainer saddled I Promise You, a highly consistent five-year-old mare who had recorded three consecutive placings in the lead-up to this Dalby assignment in a BM65 Handicap over 1200m.

Chris Taylor was given the reins this time on I Promise You, who started second favourite at $4 behind the $2.70 race favourite Jack be Lucky … and these two runners duly filled the first two places but not in the order that the betting suggested they would with I Promise You taken the honours when winning by 1.50 lengths.

Jack Be Lucky did jump into a clear early lead, but that role was short-lived as Taylor wasted no time in setting I Promise You about her business and she quickly surged into the lead.

Once there, Taylor measured his run, allowing Jack Be Lucky to edge up along his inside and dispute the lead, while keeping something in reserve on his mount.

These two runner matched strides all the way through the sweep to the home turn where, on straightening, I Promise You followed a path out onto the centre of the track while Jack Be Lucky stuck to the inside.

I Promise You established a narrow advantage early in the home straight, one she would hold all the way to the line, where she ultimately saluted by a 1.50 margin, but, although effectively beaten some way out already, Jack be Lucky still stuck to his task, keeping I Promise You Honest over the closing stages.

This result took I Promise You’s race record to four wins and eight minor placings from twenty starts.

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