Santa Anita: Egg Drop tests win streak in Buena Vista; pick six carryover of $119,278

ARCADIA, Calif. – When Egg Drop finished her 2013 season with a win in the Grade 1 Matriarch Stakes at Hollywood Park, she gave the best performance of her career.

This year, trainer Mike Mitchell expects that standard to rise.

“It’s not like she’s different, but her gallop-outs have been so strong,” Mitchell said Saturday. “She does it so easily. Every time I work her, it’s a clocker or someone on a horse that says, ‘She’s a pretty mover.’ ”

Egg Drop, 5, makes her 2014 debut in Monday’s Grade 2, $200,000 Buena Vista Stakes for fillies and mares over a mile on turf at Santa Anita. Owned by the Little Red Feather Racing syndicate, Egg Drop will be favored in a field of 10. The race includes Argentine Group 1 winner Miss Serendipity and the stakes winners Customer Base, Dancingtothestars, Pontchatrain, Stormy Lucy, Tapicat, and Unusual Hottie.

The Buena Vista is race 7 on a nine-race card that features a pick six carryover of $119,278. The wager covers races 4 through 9.

Egg Drop has won her last three starts, a streak that includes two Grade 2 races – the Yellow Ribbon Stakes at Del Mar last September and the Goldikova Stakes here in November. In all three races, she has led or raced near the front, taken the lead in the final furlong, and won by a head or a nose under jockey Martin Garcia. In the Matriarch, she fought back on the rail after being passed and finished a nose ahead of Discreet Marq in a thrilling finish.

“She doesn’t have to be on the lead,” Mitchell said. “She’s easy to ride. I’ve never told Martin any way to ride her. He does it his own way.”

Egg Drop has won 6 of 12 starts and earned $494,020. She resumed workouts in late December and has had a consistent pattern of exercise through the winter.

“She’s ready,” Mitchell said.

The two horses Mitchell fears are Customer Base and Pontchatrain, trained by Tom Proctor.

“It’s a good field,” Mitchell said. “Anytime you run against Tom – beware.”

Customer Base, who runs from off the pace, won the Grade 3 Robert Frankel Stakes by a nose over Stormy Lucy on Dec. 29. Stormy Lucy is part of the field for the Buena Vista Stakes.

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Pontchatrain has won three consecutive stakes, all on the hillside turf course – the Unzip Me Stakes in September, the Grade 3 Sen. Ken Maddy Stakes in November, and the Grade 2 Monrovia Stakes on Jan. 5. The Buena Vista will be Ponchatrain’s first start over a mile since a troubled fourth as the 2-1 favorite in the Sandy Blue Handicap at Del Mar in August.

The Buena Vista will be the California debut of Tapicat, who has won 4 of 9 starts and earned $234,699. She won the minor Voodoo Dancer Stakes over 7 1/2 furlongs on turf at Gulfstream Park on Jan. 1, ending a four-race losing streak since the Grade 3 Florida Oaks at Tampa Bay Downs last February. Last summer, Tapicat was fifth in the Grade 2 Lake Placid Stakes over 1 1/8 miles on turf at Saratoga.

“She had a good year,” trainer Bill Mott said. “I tried her over a mile and an eighth, and it didn’t work. I wanted to find something out.”

John Velazquez will ride Tapicat for the first time in the Buena Vista. The 4-year-old Tapicat is likely to run near the front and should get favorable conditions Monday.

“She likes firm ground,” Mott said. “A mile suits her.”