Watch: Leg Drive gets on up on rivals in Townsville Cup

Trainer Matt Kropp had exhibited a fair degree of confidence in his runner Leg Drive going into the $150,000 Townsville Cup … a 2000m contest … and his judgement proved spot on when the son of Grunt outgunned the best of his rivals in a pressurised finish to take the honours in the Cup by 0.28 lengths.

The Townsville Cup is heading to Toowoomba! The money was spot on for the Matt Kropp-trained LEG DRIVE, holding off the fast-finishing THAT’S MOLLY to claim the $150,000 feature at Cluden Park. pic.twitter.com/5kKBcZMDDh

— RaceQ (@RaceQLD) August 8, 2026

Leg Drive, who jumped as the $4.60 second favourite, made good use of his favourable number two barrier draw, with Tasha Chambers making certain he secured a prominent position on the inside, racing in third place early, before Chambers was happy to let him settle in fifth, then sixth place as the speed went on when the field took the turn out of the home straight and headed for the back straight.

That left Leg Drive a little under seven lengths off the tearaway leader Canberra Legend ($13) at the halfway mark, but Chambers was still content to bide her time … that is until the approach to the home turn where Chambers moved Leg Drive wider and made a forward move which allowed the Kropp-trained runner to close ground on the leaders, to the extent that when the field straightened, Leg Drive, albeit four wide, was only a little over two lengths behind the now tiring Canberra Legend … and, in clear air, perfectly poised to strike.

And strike he did … going through his gears in measured fashion under a cool and collected ride by Chambers … joining the front line of runners spread across the track, before upping the tempo and reaching the outright lead with 175m left to run.

The job wasn’t done yet though with the Mackay Cup winner Journalism ($14) and That’s Molly ($26) making good ground when coming from a long way back. Both of these runners kept taking ground out of Leg Drive’s lead over the concluding stages … particularly That’s Molly who was driving hard late, but Leg Drive was not going to be denied, and he stayed strong to the line to claim a valuable victory.

Leg Drive came into the race on the back of two victories and a runner-up finish, in which he was touched off by such a narrow margin it was too close to call with the naked eye, so he was well and truly race-fit for this Townsville Cup assignment.

Those three previous runs were the only runs Leg Drive had had for Kropp since transferring from the Matt Laurie yard in early May, after being purchased by his new owners for $55,000.

In his four starts for the Kropp stable since kicking off this new phase of his career on June 26, the five-year-old has brought in $119,900 in prize-money earnings in just seven weeks of racing.

That already makes him a success story.