Matt Kropp chases birthday Cup win

By Glenn Davis

Toowoomba trainer Matt Kropp is hopeful of a belated birthday celebration when Sun Worshipper attempts to give him his first Queensland Cup at Eagle Farm on Saturday.

Kropp, who turned 60 on Monday, is hoping for a wet track for Sun Worshipper and is confident the five-year-old mare will be right in the finish.

“It would have been nice if she got a rain-affected track as she doesn’t mind it wet,” Kropp said.

“I turned 60 on Monday, so it’ll be a nice celebration if she can win.”

Sun Worshipper will have a change of rider with Taylor Marshall taking over from Angela Jones, who has ridden her at her past two starts.

“She needs a right-hand whip rider, so Taylor will ride her,” Kropp said.

A daughter of Sun City, Sun Worshipper is coming off a last-start ninth to the Lindsay Gough-trained Cavalry Man in the Toowoomba Cup over 2000 metres on September 26.

“She got too far back off a bad barrier in the Toowoomba Cup,” Kropp said.

“Then she was caught up between a couple of runners and got buffeted around a bit.

“She’ll benefit from the run and she’ll go a lot better over 2400 metres.”

Kropp has pencilled in a Queensland Summer Racing Carnival campaign for Sun Worshipper after the Queensland Cup.

“It’s a similar field to the Toowoomba Cup and all going well she’ll be aimed at The Shoot Out and the Subzero during the summer months,” Kropp said.

“She should run well in the Queensland Cup as she had two 1600 metre runs back from a break, which brought her up towards the staying races.

“The distance won’t worry her as she ran home strongly to finish fourth in the (Listed) Caloundra Cup during the winter.”

Kropp was a former stock and station agent before he started training more than two decades ago.

He spent many years on the land and was a former Telstra employee.

"I mucked around with a few horses early on, but I only went full-time after I left my job as a linesman with Telstra,” Kropp said.

“My first job when I left school was working as a stock and station agent for Elders.”

Kropp will again line up against his son William, who will saddle rival Prince Levi in the Queensland Cup.

Prince Levi is coming off a last-start eighth when he finished just ahead of Sun Worshipper in the Toowoomba Cup.

It was the first time Prince Levi had raced under lights at Toowoomba.

“It was an average run, but he seemed to stop when the lights hit him in the face,” Kropp said.

“It often happens to horses having their first start under lights at Toowoomba.”