Saratoga: Casa Creed gets up to defend title in Fourstardave
Saratoga Springs, N.Y.
Casa Creed rallied down the middle of the stretch on the inner turf course at Saratoga to win the Grade 1, $500,000 Fourstardave Handicap for the second year in a row to go with a pair of third-place finishes in this race.
The 7-year-old son of Jimmy Creed was making the 33rd appearance of his career and racing at the upstate New York track for the sixth consecutive year beginning in 2018 where he won for the fifth time in eight starts. In his second Saratoga appearance he won a maiden special weight. In 2019 Casa Creed won the first graded stakes race of his career in the Racing Hall of Fame Stakes (G2). This year he now has two graded stakes victories having won the Kelso (G3) earlier in the meeting.
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Casa Creed is starting to put together a record that has to remind you of the accomplishments of Fourstardave who is known as “The Sultan of Saratoga”. The great New York-bred gelding, for whom the race was named in 1996, won at least one race at Saratoga for eight consecutive years from 1987 to 1994 for a total of nine victories which included five stakes races.
“To run in four straight Fourstardaves, regardless of where you finish is a ridiculous accomplishment,” Casa Creed co-owner Lee Einsidler said. “To win it two years in a row and win it today at 7 years of age. He’s remarkable. I’m thinking maybe we’ll bring him back and try again next year.
“They tell me that he’s known as the Mayor of Saratoga, maybe after today he’s the Governor of Saratoga.”
Casa Creed, who is trained by hall of famer Bill Mott, was the 9-5 second choice in the Fourstardave even though he had beaten the 6-5 favorite Annapolis in the Kelso by a length. On that day Casa Creed got to the lead first in the stretch and Annapolis had to try and rally from behind. This time, it was the Grade 1 winning Todd Pletcher runner who got to the lead at the stretch call, but the outcome was same as the Mott runner prevailed by a margin of ¾ lengths.
“We knew he (Annapolis) was going to try and get first run on us today,” Mott explained. “I knew they were going to try and get away a little better; they did and they got first run, but it didn’t matter.”
At the start of the one-mile turf race, rider Luis Saez was content to settle in fourth position in the early going a few lengths behind the pacesetter My Sea Cottage while Annapolis was closer to the early fractions of 23.31, 46.57 and 1:10.14.
“He had a good break – he broke right there,” as Saez described the trip. “I know the other top horse [Annapolis], he was tough to beat, but my second decision was to try to follow him, because I know he’s going to [sit behind] the pace and he doesn’t want us to be right on top of him, so I just let him go and I was right behind him pretty close. When we came to the top of the stretch, I know we could win it.”
Casa Creed paid $5.70 for the win and with Annapolis the two favorites in the $2 exacta returned $10.20. Ice Chocolat closed from last in seventh with odds of 11-1 to produce a $33.00 trifecta.
The winner’s share of the Fourstardave purse boosted the career earnings of Casa Creed to more than $2.4 million. Along with the prize money Casa Creed received a "win and you’re in" spot in the Breeders’ Cup giving him a fourth opportunity to run in the world championships where ran in the Turf Sprint once and the Mile twice.
“If we go, we certainly aren’t going to run five furlongs (in the Sprint),” Mott explained. “They could run it down the hill (at Santa Anita), but they don’t. If we go to the Breeders’ Cup, it would be the Mile.” With the Breeders’ Cup about three months away Casa Creed could possibly race again but he has had four starts this year including a trip to Saudi Arabia in February.
“He probably deserves a rest,” Mott added. “He’s a good horse, very special. How can you ask for anything more? He’s improved with every year he’s raced. He’s as good now as he ever was.”