Little Red Feather Racing’s Egg Drop earned her third straight graded victory
on Sunday when coming back after being headed by Discreet Marq in the Grade 1,
$251,000
Matriarch at Hollywood Park. The duo finished in a head-bobbing photo,
which eventually showed Egg Drop’s nose down on the wire first in a final time
of 1:34 for a mile on the firm turf.
“These are good fillies,
Grade 1, and they’re never going to give you an easy one. She got headed and
came on again — just did it on guts,” trainer Mike Mitchell declared. “Putting
her on the lawn was the key. She kind of scooted over it really nice. I know her
sire goes with turf horses. Her plans for next year are up in the air.”
“I’m going to celebrate this right now,” grinned Billy Koch, founder/managing
partner of Little Red Feather Racing. “I know her
value right now is about as high as it’s ever going to be. I’ll talk to the
partners and I’ll talk to (Mitchell) and see how she comes out of this race and
then we’ll make a decision about (whether to breed her) next year. No decision
has been made right now.
“She’s just awesome. She’s won on turf, she’s won on
dirt, she’s won on Polytrack, she’s won on Cushion — every single surface that’s
out here. She’s won from six furlongs to a mile and a sixteenth.
“There are 15
partners, mostly from around here, but some from all over the country,” Koch
added. “Mike and
Laura Sibo, this is the one horse they have with us so I’m trying to get them in
every single partnership we have. They also own a piece of (Breeders’ Cup
Classic winner) Mucho Macho Man. They are the luckiest owners in the history of
horse racing.”
Egg Drop, with Martin Garcia aboard, grabbed command out of the gate from her rail post and led the way
down the backstretch through splits of :23 4/5, :47 1/5 and 1:10 2/5 with
Discreet Marq hot on her hooves. The latter pulled her way up to run in tandem
with Egg Drop rounding the turn, and a battle royale commenced down the lane.
Discreet Marq, seeking her fifth stakes win from her last six starts,
appeared the winner as she began inching her way in front of Egg Drop. However,
her rival fought back on the rail and they two hit the wire together. A very,
very short nose was all that separated the two game fillies on the wire, with
Egg Drop adding a first Grade 1 win to her resume.
“The race set up as we
planned,” Garcia said. “I let her break cleanly and she was running very comfortably and when I
asked her to go she responded. (Discreet Marq) went by me very easily at the top
of the stretch, but my filly never gave up and came back. That was a very tough
race and she was able to get the job done.”
“I was laying second very comfortable about a couple of lengths off the
leader and I moved when I had to move,” explained Discreet Marq’s jockey, Rafael
Bejarano. “My filly gave me a big kick in the stretch, but the other horse came
back on and we got ran down.”
Despite entering the Matriarch with two straight Grade 2 scores, Egg Drop was
sent off the 10-1 sixth choice and returned a very nice $23.20 for the victory.
Discreet Marq, owner of her own Grade 1 win thanks to a three-quarter length
triumph in the Del Mar Oaks on August 17, shipped back to California for this
race after taking the Pebbles at Belmont Park on October 14.
“She ran her heart out. She always tries,” Chris Lorieul, assistant to
trainer Christophe Clement, praised Discreet Marq. “I thought it set up perfectly.
I thought (Egg Drop) would go to the lead and we’d be stalking either in second
or third. It worked out OK — turning for home she had plenty left and she came
running, but again just bad luck.”
It was another half-length back to third-placer and First Lady victress
Better Lucky, who captured last year’s edition of the Matriarch by a length over
the re-opposing Tiz Flirtatious.
“I had a very good trip. No excuses. She ran hard. She tried hard and no
excuses,” stated Julien Leparoux, who was aboard Better Lucky.
Dayatthespa came next followed by Tiz
Flirtatious, who was bet down to 9-5 favoritism following a win in the Rodeo
Drive and a sixth-placing by just two lengths in the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare
Turf in her past two. Wishing Gate, Pianist, Stormy Lucy and My Gi Gi completed
the order under the wire.
Egg Drop broke her maiden in her September 2011 debut at Del Mar before
suffering the first of only two off-the-board runs in her career when 10th in
the Alcibiades at Keeneland next out. She started only once as a sophomore,
coming in third against optional claiming rivals at Hollywood, but has racked up
a 5-2-1 mark from nine starts now as a four-year-old.
The gray daughter of Alphabet Soup tried graded company for just the second
time when missing by a half-length to be second in the Royal Heroine Mile in
July before beginning her current three-race win streak. She posted head scores
in the Yellow Ribbon Handicap and Goldikova, both Grade 2 contests, prior to
Sunday’s race, and improved her career mark to 12-6-2-2, $494,020, with the
Matriarch win.
Egg Drop was a bargain when passing through the auction ring, bringing
$12,000 as an OBS August yearling. Bred in Florida by Centaur Farms Inc., she is
out of the winning Adhocracy mare Rehocracy, who is a full sister to five-time
stakes victress and Grade 2-placed Redoubled Miss. Egg Drop descends from the
same female line as human interest story/stakes winner Lisa’s Booby Trap.
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