Santa Anita: Egg Drop holds on by head in Goldikova
ARCADIA, Calif. - Egg Drop won her second consecutive Grade 2 race in Sunday’s $151,000 Goldikova Stakes on the final day of the Santa Anita autumn meeting. To become a multiple stakes winner, Egg Drop has developed a style that has surprised trainer Mike Mitchell.
“I really did think that I’d be able to have her on an easy lead over two turns,” Mitchell said. “But she rates so nice and so kind.”
Egg Drop ($5.80) had a perfect trip in the Goldikova, run over a mile on turf for fillies and mares. Ridden by Martin Garcia, Egg Drop stalked runaway pacesetter E Z Kitty through a quick pace of 22.33 and 45.09 seconds, trailing by as many as eight lengths on the backstretch.
Egg Drop caught a fading E Z Kitty on the turn, but was passed in early stretch by A Time To Love. In the final furlong, Egg Drop retook the lead and held off a late run from 7-1 Miss Pippa to win by a head, finishing in 1:33.52.
Customer Base, a 9-1 shot, finished third, followed by A Time to Love, Appealing, Long Face, More Chocolate, Ighraa, and E Z Kitty.
Owned by Little Red Feather Racing, Egg Drop has won 5 of 11 starts and earned $344,020. Egg Drop, a 4-year-old filly by Alphabet Soup, won the Grade 2 Yellow Ribbon Handicap at Del Mar on Sept. 2 for her first stakes win. In July, she was second in the Grade 2 Royal Heroine Mile at Betfair Hollywood Park.
Mitchell said that Egg Drop is a candidate for the $250,000 Matriarch Stakes over a mile on turf at Betfair Hollywood Park on Dec. 1. The Matriarch Stakes is a Grade 1. In her only previous career appearance in a Grade 1, Egg Drop finished 10th of 13 after a slow start in the Alcibiades Stakes at Keeneland in 2011.