Egg Drop gets the bob over Discreet Marq in Matriarch

Egg Drop (right) was headed by Discreet Marq in the stretch, but fought back gamely to nip her younger rival (Benoit Photos) 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.”

Egg Drop (inside) has won three straight graded stakes in tight finishes (Benoit Photos) 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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