The dedication and patience of an owner-breeder who lives for her horses has made Pop Award’s emergence even more special heading into the Regal Roller Stakes at Caulfield.
Debbie Kroger often questions her commitment to the cause and occasionally wonders if Lloyd Williams, one of Australia’s more successful racehorse owners, was right after all.
In the end, an unwavering devotion to the thoroughbred and a sense of optimism that seems to accompany breeders of her kind always wins out.
On a farm located on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula, among a herd of cattle, evidence of Kroger’s well-established connection to racing grazes throughout the 200 acres.
There are active and retired broodmares, ex-racehorses representing generations of thoroughbred families that Kroger cares for in their twilight years.
“Oh, look, why I keep going, I don't know, really. I just think one day, perhaps, something will repay me for my loyalty,” Kroger told The Straight.
“(Lloyd Williams) always said to me, ‘oh, don't breed, don't start breeding. It's not what it is cracked up to be’.
“And he never really did much breeding, Lloyd himself. But anyway, that's another story.”
Except that Williams is a part of the story - albeit a long time removed - behind the emergence of Pop Award, a mare bred and owned by Kroger who will be thrust into the early spring spotlight at Caulfield on Saturday.
A five-year-old with limited racing experience, Pop Award might just be the horse Kroger has been waiting for, as a clash against sprinters with Group 1 ambitions awaits at Listed level in the Regal Roller Stakes.
In contrast to a seemingly never-ending influx of northern hemisphere racehorses that underpins racing in Australia today, imports during the 1980s carried a certain novelty factor with them into the country.
They were few and far between and there was a curiosity attached to their arrival as they found their way to the biggest and most well-connected stables at the time.
And well before Williams turned buying imports into an annual exercise to satisfy an obsession for winning Melbourne Cups, he dabbled in sourcing some mares from the UK.
Pop Award is a descendant of one of those mares from that shipment.
“I just fell in love with Lucky Poppy, and she is the granddam of Pop Award,” Kroger, a life member of the Melbourne Racing Club, said.
“John Meagher had her in the early days, and she won her first six starts in Australia. So I was hooked after that, you'd have to say.”
Meagher was an influential trainer of his time, collecting Australian racing’s major trophies, the most notable being the 1985 Melbourne Cup with the Williams-owned What A Nuisance.
But Kroger says the days of putting her horses into high-profile stables have passed, preferring a personal connection that has evolved between herself, Lyn Tolson and Leonie Proctor over the past decade.
Tolson and Proctor are a mother-daughter training team who have made a name for themselves by achieving results with modestly bred or unwanted horses, such as Curran, the winner of five races and almost $900,000 in stakes, from a $600 online sale outlay.
“I don't go to the fashionable trainers anymore because I like being involved myself,” Kroger said.
“I'm sure these girls can do the job, but they don't get the opportunities. They don't get any good, well-bred stuff.
“They have to fluke a Curran and that sort of thing, but they are good horsewomen.”
POP AWARD 🥇🥇🥇🥇
— 7HorseRacing 🐎 (@7horseracing) July 26, 2025
Four in a row for the Lyn Tolson & Leonie Proctor trained mare, she's a ripper! @MattCartwrigh14 pic.twitter.com/zOTJdxtraa
Lucky Poppy, a daughter of Touching Wood, won six races herself and produced five winners, including Miss Popkins, who won five races for trainer Peter Healey.
On the advice of pedigree analyst Kristen Manning, Kroger sent the Jeune mare to Shamus Award when the 2013 Cox Plate winner was relocated to Rosemont in Victoria after standing at Widden Stud in the NSW Hunter Valley.
Pop Award is the result but it has been a match that has tested Kroger’s hands-on approach to the limit.
“At one stage, I didn't think she'd get to the races because she had a pretty bad attitude, “ Kroger said.
Time has been her saviour and explains why Pop Award didn’t race until the early part of her four-year-old season.
“She was always a nice type of mare but she is from a family of slow maturers. If you tried to race them as two-year-olds you wouldn’t get anything,” Kroger said.
“And being by Shamus Award, they need a bit of time and she had a few little issues as well. She ran into a fence and did all sorts of things, as they do. Usual stuff with the horse.”
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While a stakes win will be a triumph for perseverance, Kroger says it will not be the end of the world if Pop Award is beaten, considering how far she has come over the past 12 months.
The mare’s mere presence at Caulfield will also be a reward for staying the distance with a breed-to-race approach.
“I've always had a bit of faith in the family, and they've always shown a little bit of brilliance,” Kroger said.
“I've kept these old mares and people have been critical of me saying, ‘oh, you should get rid of them and you should breed up and you should do this’.
“I just like the horse. That's my love really, the horse.”
