It wouldn't be Saratoga without Casa Creed .
In each of the six years he has been in training, the son of Jimmy Creed has made at least one start at the storied meeting, and in four of those years he has won a race at the Spa. His Saratoga Race Course wins are a maiden special event on the dirt at 2; the National Racing Museum Hall of Fame Stakes (G2T) at 3; the Fourstardave Handicap (G1T) at 6; and the Kelso Stakes (G3T) this year at 7. For good measure, the two years in which he didn't win at Saratoga, he took third in two runnings of the Fourstardave.
Overall, this extremely durable campaigner has won eight of 32 starts and $2,185,308, also including the Jaipur Stakes (G1T), twice; the Elusive Quality Stakes; and the Kitten's Joy Stakes. That's a very different career arc to Casa Creed's sire, Jimmy Creed, who made 10 starts, seven of those squeezed into a seven-month span at 3.
Of those seven races, Jimmy Creed won three, a maiden special weight at Hollywood Park, an allowance at Del Mar, and the Malibu Stakes (G1) at Santa Anita Park. He kicked off his 4-year-old season with a score in the Potrero Grande Stakes (G2), but started just twice more, earning third in the Bing Crosby Stakes (G1) on the second of those outings.
A son of Distorted Humor and the La Brea Stakes (G1) victress Hookedonthefeelin, Jimmy Creed retired to stand at Spendthrift Farm in 2014. He has sired 21 stakes winners in his first three crops, including Kanthaka, successful in the San Vicente Stakes (G2) and Lazaro Barrera Stakes (G3), and second in the Jaipur, beaten just a neck; Spectator, winner of the Sorrento Stakes (G2) and placed in the Santa Anita Oaks (G1) and Del Mar Debutante Stakes (G1); the Gallant Bob Stakes (G2) scorer King Jack; and Joey Freshwater, who took the Bay Shore Stakes (G3) this year.
Casa Creed's dam, the 11-year-old Bellamy Road mare Achalaya, never ran, but she is already dam of not only Casa Creed, but also Chess's Dream (by the Curlin horse Jess's Dream), successful in the Kitten's Joy Stakes (G3T). Achalaya is half sister to a pair of black-type-placed horses, and also to Allemande, the dam of Ridin With Biden, a winner of four black-type events, including the Greenwood Cup Stakes (G3). We'll note that Ridin With Biden's sire, Constitution , is out of a mare by Jimmy Creed's sire, Distorted Humor.
The second dam of Casa Creed, Wild Heart Dancing, was a very accomplished turf performer, capturing seven black-type events, including the Canadian Handicap (G2), Boiling Springs Breeders' Cup Handicap (G3), Athenia Handicap (G3), and My Charmer Handicap (G3). Wild Heart Dancing is half sister to an even better grass runner in Man From Wicklow, who earned a victory at the highest level in the Gulfstream Park Breeders' Cup Handicap (G1).
Wild Heart Dancing's dam, Star of Wicklow, is out of the stakes-winning Bright Choice, a daughter of the imported English mare Wyandra. She was unraced but was out of Outback, runner-up in the Yorkshire Oaks (G1). Outback's dam, Outcrop, went one better in the Yorkshire Oaks, and also captured the Park Hill Stakes (G2), generally considered the fillies' equivalent of the St. Leger (G1). Outcrop is also a sister to Rocchetta, the dam of the Middle Park Stakes (G1) winner and very successful sire Sharpen Up. Another sister to Outcrop, Riches, is granddam of the Italian Derby (G1) winner Gay Lussac. The family goes back to the 1919 English Oaks winner, Bayuda.
Casa Creed is one of two stakes winners from only four starters by Jimmy Creed out of Bellamy Road mares, a mating that doubles Danzig, the broodmare sire of Jimmy Creed's own sire, Distorted Humor, and great-grandsire of Bellamy Road. In the female line, Casa Creed stems from the 'B' Achilli Haplogroup. This is a comparatively rare one, found in the female line of only about 4% of the population. With that in mind, it's significant that Fast Play, the sire of Casa Creed's third dam, is also from the 'B' haplogroup, as is Deputed Testamony, the broodmare sire of Bellamy Road. This means it's highly likely that Casa Creed's dam will supply the "right" nuclear DNA to combine with her mtDNA irrespective of what stallion she is mated to.
