Santa Anita: Change of plans for Egg Drop

ARCADIA, Calif. – Egg Drop, who won her final three starts of 2013, all in graded stakes, will remain in training this year, according to Billy Koch, the founder of the Little Red Feather syndicate.

Egg Drop was nominated to the January horses of all ages sale at Keeneland next week, but will stay with trainer Mike Mitchell.
“We are pulling her out of the sale and running in 2014,” Koch said. “We’re looking forward to the new year.”

A 5-year-old mare by Alphabet Soup, Egg Drop has won 6 of 12 starts and earned $494,020. In her final three starts of 2013, Egg Drop won the Grade 2 Yellow Ribbon Handicap at Del Mar in September, the Grade 2 Goldikova Stakes at Santa Anita in November, and the Grade 1 Matriarch Stakes at Hollywood Park in December.

Koch said the $200,000 Buena Vista Stakes for fillies and mares over a mile on turf at Santa Anita on Feb. 17 is the first objective for 2014. Egg Drop will be pointed for a Breeders’ Cup race at Santa Anita in the autumn.

“The Breeders’ Cup is our end-goal, but which Breeders’ Cup race I don’t know yet,” Koch said.

Rail Trip heads to Old Friends

Rail Trip, the winner of the 2009 Hollywood Gold Cup and four other stakes in a five-year career, has been retired and will be sent to Old Friends farm in Kentucky, owner Samantha Siegel said on Friday.

A winner of 9 of 27 starts, 9-year-old Rail Trip earned $1,516,520 in a career that began in November 2008 and ended with a fifth-place finish in the Big Bear Stakes at Santa Anita in October.

“He’s special,” Siegel said. “It’s neat that we got to win a Gold Cup with him. He was a love-at-first-sight horse at the sale. It’s fun when those horses turn out to be runners.”

The 2009 Gold Cup was Rail Trip’s first graded stakes win. He later won the Grade 2 Mervyn LeRoy and Grade 2 Californian Stakes at Hollywood Park in 2010, and the Grade 2 San Diego Handicap at Del Mar in 2012.

Rail Trip will be sent to Old Friends on Jan. 17, Siegel said.

Beholder will train soon

Beholder, the champion 2-year-old filly of 2012 and the winner of the Breeders’ Cup Distaff at Santa Anita in November, is nearing a return to training with Richard Mandella at Santa Anita.

Mandella said on Friday that the 4-year-old Beholder is currently based with Julie Adair-Stack at her Southern California lay-up farm, going through light exercise.

“She’ll get a couple of weeks there before she comes in,” Mandella said.

Beholder has won 8 of 12 starts and earned $3,075,000. She won five stakes in 2013, including four Grade 1 races at Santa Anita – the Las Virgenes, Santa Anita Oaks, Zenyatta Stakes, and BC Distaff.

She is a leading contender for the Eclipse Award as the nation’s outstanding 3-year-old filly of 2013.