Dam of Breeders' Cup Classic hero Bayern dies after foaling

Alittlebitearly - the dam of 2014 Breeders' Cup Classic hero Bayern - has died at Helen Alexander's Middlebrook Farm in Lexington, Kentucky, after producing a healthy filly by champion juvenile and Kentucky Derby winner Nyquist.

Alittlebitearly earned her moniker as she was foaled on December 14, 2002, and was bred by Alexander in partnership with her mother Helen Groves and sister Dorothy Matz.

The 18-year-old Thunder Gulch mare produced five winners from as many runners including Bayern, a son of Offlee Wild who earned nearly $4.5 million in two seasons and held on gamely from Toast Of New York and California Chrome to capture the 2014 Breeders' Cup Classic.

The following March, Alittlebitearly's colt by Scat Daddy topped the 2015 Fasig-Tipton Selected Two-Year-Olds in Training Sale when hammered down to MV Magnier for $1.4m.

Bayern also won the Haskell Invitational Stakes, the Grade 2 Woody Stephens Stakes, and set a track record winning the Grade 2 Pennsylvania Derby.

Alittlebitearly also has a two-year-old American Pharoah colt named Carnarvon and is out of the Alydar mare Aquilegia, a multiple Graded winner for her owner and co-breeder Groves and a full-sister to the champion Althea.

Aquilegia produced three stakes winners, including major stakes producer Amelia, and was a daughter of foundation mare and Broodmare of the Year Courtly Dee.

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