Egg Drop Makes Two for Bridlewood; Home Run for Little Red Feather

Egg Drop Makes Two for Bridlewood…
Bridlewood Farm, purchased by Leslie and John Malone last summer, is building a top-class broodmare band and took another step in that direction with the $1.9-million purchase of Grade I winner Egg Drop (Alphabet Soup). The gray mare sold at Keeneland November Tuesday in foal to leading sire Tapit. She was offered by Taylor Made Sales Agency, Agent LXXX. 

“We are trying to build a special program one horse at a time,” said Bridlewood’s general manager George Isaacs. “We want to build a broodmare band of about 20 to 25 mares, all very special mares, and one horse at a time, we’re going to do that. This is literally our second mare.” 

Isaacs also signed the ticket for Concinnous (El Corredor), the dam of multiple Grade I winner Iotapa (Afleet Alex), at $2 million at Fasig-Tipton’s November sale Monday. 

Racing for the Little Red Feather partnership, Egg Drop (hip 66) won last year’s GI Matriarch S., as well as the GII Goldikova S. and GII Yellow Ribbon H. 

“This mare, obviously, had all the ingredients we are looking for,” Isaacs said of Egg Drop. “First of all, she’s an alpha physical, a beautiful mare. She has a very good pedigree, great race record and looks like she’ll be a great broodmare. And she’s in foal to the top stallion in the country, so it’s all good. You can rest assured that she’ll be bred back to a really top stallion again this year.” 

John Malone is chairman of Liberty Media Corp. He and his wife purchased the historic Bridlewood in August, 2013. Bridlewood will be breeding to both race and sell. 

“We are going to breed to race and breed to sell–a little bit of both,” Isaacs said. “At the end of the day, Bridlewood has always been a sustainable, profitable program. That will still be our goal, but we’re going to have fun, too. That’s at the top of the pyramid–let’s have fun.” 

Bridlewood also purchased a weanling colt by Tapit for $500,000 during Monday’s Fasig-Tipton sale. 
Isaacs admitted the market for top mares was competitive. 

“It’s a little tough,” Isaacs said of the market. “I’m a conservative, so I don’t like spending this kind of money. But at the end of the day, we set a budget and we’re still within our budget. Hopefully I’ll get a bargain in this sale somewhere along the way.” 

Home Run for Little Red Feather… 
Egg Drop was purchased by bloodstock agent Tom McCrocklin for $12,000 as an OBS August yearling in 2010. She was subsequently purchased privately for the Little Red Feather racing partnership run by Billy Koch. Affectionately nicknamed the White Witch, Egg Drop scored three straight gritty graded victories last fall, first taking the Yellow Ribbon H. by a head. She won the Goldikova by the same margin and then just nosed out Discreet Marq (Discreet Cat) to win the Matriarch. Egg Drop was originally entered in the Keeneland January sale, but was withdrawn. She finished second in the Feb. 17 GII Buena Vista S. in her lone 2014 start and was retired and bred to Gainesway’s Tapit. 

An emotional Koch was gratified with the mare’s $1.9-million sale Tuesday. 

“We didn’t come in with any real expectations,” Koch explained. “We just know what a fabulous mare she is and how much see means to all our partners. So there are a lot of mixed emotions, but she’s going to a great home and we love her and we’re so pleased with the people who bought her. She is going to stay here in Kentucky and hopefully have some really fast babies.” 

Little Red Feather also campaigned 2004 GI Breeders’ Cup Mile winner Singletary and Koch acknowledged Egg Drop meant a lot to the partners.

“She meant everything to our partnership,” he said. “You guys know. You’re in this game, you know how hard it is to get a filly like her with so much courage and heart. She is just a beautiful filly.” 

Of the decision to sell the mare, Koch said, “When you are in a partnership, sometimes it’s hard, but you have to do the right thing. We knew that some day this would probably have to happen. The decision was difficult, but at the same time we try to do our best for our partners and for our partnership, so that we can ultimately reinvest in the industry and keep it going in that way and look for the next Egg Drop, hopefully.”