Racing: Bad blemish but glories aplenty

How will Lisa Cropp be remembered in horse racing?

The tragedy is she will almost certainly be defined by her remarkable methamphetamine charges.

Which will be a shame.

What she will be less remembered for in decades to come will be the stunning horsemanship she produced. The races she won that few others had the ability to do. That talent to motivate a horse, even a tired horse, without punishing it.

Cropp could propel a horse forward with a combination of balance and bullying and very little whip use that was literally remarkable and won a host of top races as a result.

There was never a better example of that than when she landed Levin stayer Sculptor home a winner in the Saab Quality on Derby Day at Flemington 18 months ago to force the gelding's way into the Melbourne Cup field at the expense of The Fuzz, which she beat, three days later.

On The Fuzz's back was Craig Williams, one of the truly great finish riders of the world of horse racing.

Cropp threw Sculptor over the Flemington finish line after a 300m duel to beat Williams by the width of your hand.

The irony is that one year and one week earlier Cropp, for reasons of weight, had replaced Williams on the David Hayes-trained filly Miss Finland in the Cox Plate and had ridden possibly the worst race of her career.

Melbourne stewards reprimanded her for three separate elements of her Miss Finland ride.

It was at a time when she was heavily immersed in her methamphetamine problems.

Last week, after a dreary four-year wait, the Judicial Control Authority disqualified her for nine months, fined her $7500 and ordered her to pay costs of $92,000. From June 25, Cropp will not be permitted to be on a racetrack on raceday or non-raceday and will notbe allowed on any property where horses are either trained or kept.

Lisa Cropp's first real appearance on a racecourse was as a tiny 11-year-old when she led giant jumper Hunterville on to Ellerslie in June 1982 to win the famous Great Northern Steeplechase for her father, Ron Cropp.

She was full of confidence and love for horse racing and it came as no surprise that she ended up a jockey.