Grade 1 winner Free Drop Billy has first mare confirmed in foal

Spendthrift Farm’s new stallion Free Drop Billy, the Grade 1-winning 2-year-old by Union Rags, had his first mare confirmed in foal.

Autumn Gold, a Smart Strike mare that was bred through Spendthrift’s “Share The Upside” program, checked in foal on Monday at Fairview Farm in Versailles, KY. A half-sister to a pair of multiple stakes winners, Autumn Gold is owned by Dr. Connie Brown.

Campaigned by Albaugh Family Stables, Free Drop Billy was one of America’s top 2-year-olds in 2017. After a three-length debut victory going 5 ½ furlongs at Churchill Downs, Free Drop Billy was the favorite in the Sanford Stakes (G3) and Hopeful Stakes (G1) at Saratoga in his next two starts, finishing a close runner-up in each. He stretched out around two turns in his fourth start – the 1 1/16-miles Breeders’ Futurity (G1) at Keeneland – and won going away by four lengths over Bravazo.

In major Derby preps as a 3-year-old, Free Drop Billy finished on the board in the Blue Grass Stakes (G2), Holy Bull Stakes (G2) and Gotham Stakes (G3). He retired to Spendthrift as the only Grade 1-winning son of popular sire Union Rags, with career earnings of $662,470.

Free Drop Billy is out of the graded stakes-placed and multiple Grade 1-producing Giant’s Causeway mare Trensa, and hails from the family of champion and leading sire Cozzene. Free Drop Billy is a half-brother to multiple Group 1-winning multimillionaire Hawkbill.