Racing: Trainer hopes to take Bulginbaah 'home'

Ken Cropp's half-century search for a home-coming ticket is over.

After 52 years away from Queensland, Townsville-born Cropp reckons he's finally found a worthy travelling companion in upset Foxbridge Plate winner Bulginbaah.

While the Mudgway Partsworld Stakes on September 2 is the next target for the under-rated six-year-old, his Wanganui trainer is dreaming of richer career-highs in Brisbane next year.

"I'd love to go back and set him for races like the Doomben 10,000 and the Stradbroke," said Cropp, 78, who arrived here in 1954 to ride over fences.

"It would be great to go home again and do a bit of skiting as well. I would have gone back sooner but when you've been away from a place a long time, your mates are all married, they spend five minutes catching up then they're gone again.

"This way, when you're on your own like me, you take a horse this good with you and you make a lot of new friends at the track."

Ironically, it was the same Te Rapa feature on Saturday, 23 years earlier that Cropp last hoped to use as a springboard back to Australia.

He had former stable star Athamas primed for a Melbourne Cup campaign, but he had to be destroyed after breaking a shoulder in the Foxbridge.

Cropp admits he thought twice about returning to Te Rapa because of the bad memories around that day.

But Jason Symes' copybook ride on Bulginbaah never gave Cropp - no relation to champion rider Lisa - any cause for concern watching the race on Trackside at home in Wanganui.

"Even with Seachange and Don't Ya Lovett in the race I really thought we could win it," said Cropp, who also bred the horse with soon-to-be training partner, former jockey Catherine Wilson.

"He's a pretty good horse this bugger. He's only got a short sprint but it's a beauty."

Cropp said Bulginbaah, an impressive open handicap winner at Hastings leading into the Foxbridge, should have finished a lot closer than third in the Opunake Cup three starts back.

But the gelding got skittled just 200m after the jump and settled much further back in the field than he prefers, forcing Symes to make a long sustained burst, rather than holding him up for a short dash.

Bulginbaah's response in the Foxbridge was his fourth win from his last five starts - he has 11 career victories from 25 starts in total - and brings his stakes tally past $150,000.

Cropp and co-owners Wilson, Wanganui pal Janice Pine and his Melbourne-based sister Margaret turned down similar money to sell after the gelding's first victory.

But Cropp said no amount of money could compensate for the thrills the horse has given them since - and he's confident of more success ahead.

If all goes to plan that should come next at the rich Hastings spring carnival with a match-fit Bulginbaah, who failed in the Mudgway last year when nowhere near as sharp.

On a track in Bulginbaah's preferred 3.5 to 4 penetrometer range, Cropp is confident that he'll be tough to beat, and again in the Stoney Bridge Stakes (1600m) on the same track on September 23.

While runner-up Don't Ya Lovett is only likely to be a next-up rival again in the Mudgway on a rain-affected surface, Seachange is a definite starter, despite her shock loss in the Foxbridge.

If ever Seachange was going to be vulnerable to a career-first defeat, her camp said Saturday's first weight-for-age test against older horses was the race.

She was second-up after a lengthy spell, drew wide and carried 6kg more in weight than she did in her fresh-up win on the course on July 29.

Aussie jockey Gavin McKeon, riding the Cape Cross mare for the first time since January, felt the pressure with 600m still to go.

"She needed to get a soft run and didn't get it," he said.

"I was expecting Rat Tat to sit outside Zvezda and we'd sit in behind getting a nice cosy run.

"But when Rat Tat showed no speed at all we were forced to sit outside the leader and work just a bit more harder than I wanted to.

"She felt like a horse that needed the run."

McKeon said Seachange is even likely to need another run before being at her peak and warns that she may be vulnerable again in the upcoming Mudgway.

"She'll be very close to it but there's a little way to go yet," he said.

"And the way she raced yesterday [Saturday] she will be better suited to more ground.

"She's more dour this time in. The way she stuck on when she was clearly out of gas showed me she's more suited now to 1600 and 2000m - and just how much courage she's got."

How they ran

8 Johar Foxbridge Plate (Listed), $60,000, 1400m 3-4 Bulginbaah (2) 59 J Symes 1 2-2 Don't Ya Lovett (1) 59 O Bosson 2 1-1 Seachange (13) 56 G McKeon 3 Scratched: My Lips Ar Sealed, Danz Star, Avaroadi, Grani. Also (in finish order): 5-5 Zvezda, 4-3 Rags To Riches, 9-9 Ben Sparta, 6-6 Daniel Samson, 8-8 Royal Secret, 7-7 Rat Tat. 1/2L, hd, 1-1/4L. Time: 1:25.17. Win: $8.15. Places: $2.10, $1.40, $1.20. Quinella: $12.40. Trifecta: $61.30. TAB Double: $37.70 (3/2), $7.20 (3/1). Sub: Seachange (13). Trainer: Ken Cropp, Wanganui. Breeding: 6 g Starjo-Lady Tristimus.