Zipse: Casa Creed is becoming the new Mr. Saratoga

He will never have the opportunity to catch up to the accomplishments of Fourstardave, but Casa Creed is quietly becoming the new Mr. Saratoga.

Saturday at the Spa, the Bill Mott-trained multiple Grade 1 winner got first run at the leaders and easily held off Annapolis to score a popular victory in the Grade 3 Kelso Stakes.

The one-mile turf test for older horses marked the sixth consecutive year Casa Creed has run at Saratoga. That, in and of itself, is a feat. But the 7-year-old is doing far more than just running at the summertime destination.

Few noticed five years ago when the son of Jimmy Creed made his career debut at Saratoga going six furlongs on the dirt. Sent off at odds of 32-1 for his Hall of Fame trainer, he improved his position down the stretch to finish sixth.

Off that inauspicious beginning to his racing career, Casa Creed has found great success at the Spa ever since. In his next start, he scored his first career win with a 1 1/2-length score going seven furlongs.

The maiden win, which was taken off the turf and moved to the main track at Saratoga, remains his only career victory on the dirt. It was also enough to earn him a spot in the Grade 1 Champagne next out, where he stumbled at the start and finished ahead of only three horses.

Dirt would not be his future, but running in a Grade 1 so early in his career showed us then that Mott believed in Casa Creed.

Finding a home on the turf, he earned his first career stakes win with a determined score in the Kitten’s Joy at Gulfstream Park five days into his sophomore season. It was the first of what are now seven career stakes victories for the $105,000 yearling purchase.

After Saturday’s performance, it would come as no surprise to see that number grow for the late-running grass star. Given a perfect ride by his regular pilot Luis Saez and defeating the Grade 1-winning race favorite, the well-traveled veteran reaffirmed his place as one of America’s best on the turf at distances of a mile or less.

Already twice a winner of the seven-furlong Jaipur Stakes (G1) at Belmont Park, he narrowly missed earning his third victory in that race last time out, but it set him up well for a trip upstate to his favorite track.

Although that six-panel trip is clearly to his liking, he has found great success going a flat mile at the Spa.

Owned by the partnership of LRE Racing and JEH Racing Stable, Casa Creed now has won three graded stakes at a mile over the Saratoga turf.

In 2019, the winner of nearly $2.2 million earned his first career graded-stakes win by taking home the National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame Stakes (G2). Then, after two solid tries in the Grade 1 race, he upset the champion mare Regal Glory to win last year's Fourstardave Handicap.

The Fourstardave on Aug. 12 once again will be the next stop for Casa Creed. It will be his fourth start in the race named after the horse who made a career of great summers at Saratoga.

The amazingly durable Fourstardave ran at Saratoga 21 times over a nine-year career from 1987 through 1995. The New York-bred son of Compliance won there nine times, including six stakes victories.

Those gaudy numbers at the Spa will never be broken, but it’s nice to see a current runner come back to America’s most popular racetrack year after year and have great success.

Like Fourstardave, Casa Creed can win anywhere, but there’s something special about Saratoga.

Six summers into his career at the summertime mecca, Casa Creed is still going strong and shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon.