New stallion Casa Creed seen as a 'throwback horse' that the modern thoroughbred needs

Multiple Grade 1 winner and miler/sprinter millionaire Casa Creed Casa Creedhas been retired and will enter stud at Mill Ridge Farm, Lexington next year.

Price Bell, general manager of the family owned and operated farm, said: “Casa Creed is a great addition here at Mill Ridge. Like so many of us in racing, we grew our regard for him over the years as he danced every dance at the highest level against the very best. 

"His pedigree blend with Jimmy Creed, by Distorted Humor, will suit so many mares at a very reasonable fee of $10,000."

Casa Creed is going to be syndicated, as were Oscar Performance and Aloha West, who also stand at Mill Ridge. Bell is the syndicate manager.

The eight-year-old son of Jimmy Creed raced from two to eigth for owners Lee Einsidler and Mike Francesa and had his entire racing career shaped by trainer Bill Mott. 

Casa Creed won his second start at two and became a stakes winner on his three-year-old debut in 2019, when he won the Kitten's Joy Stakes. He would go on to win or place in 15 Graded stakes, highlighted by back-to-back victories in 2022 and 2023 in the Grade 1 Fourstardave Handicap and consecutive wins in the Grade 1 Jaipur Stakes in 2021 and 2022.

"I am very close with Lee Einsidler and to be able to share these incredible memories over six years through Casa Creed cannot be put into words," said Mott.

Einsidler said he sees Casa Creed as a "throwback horse" that the modern thoroughbred needs.

"He could make a real contribution in the future," he said. "For my family and Mike Francesa to share six years together through this horse, travelling the world, racing and winning, nine times, at the highest level will never be replicated. 

“Bill Mott and his family and his team allowed us to fulfil every dream and in the process he grew a cult following with the public, especially [at] Saratoga. And now, to have the opportunity to reproduce his quality at a farm like Mill Ridge with Headley and Price Bell allows us to start a new chapter and new dreams."

Along with his Grade 1 successes, Casa Creed also won the Grade 2 National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame Stakes and the Grade 3 Kelso Stakes. He ran third in the 2023 Breeders' Cup Mile and competed in the Middle East in 2022-24, when he was runner-up in the 2022-23 editions of the Group 3 1351 Turf Sprint Cup in Saudi Arabia on Saudi Cup day. Casa Creed retires with a 9-5-6 record from 36 starts and $2,691,308 in earnings.

Casa Creed joins Oscar Performance (currently the fifth-leading third-crop sire by progeny earnings but the leader of his sire class by number of 2024 Graded stakes winners) as an elite turf performer with dirt influences in his pedigree. 

Jimmy Creed, a son of Distorted Humor, won the Grade 1 Malibu Stakes on the main track, while Casa Creed's dam, Achalaya, is a daughter of Bellamy Road, who won the 2005 Grade 1 Wood Memorial Stakes by 17 and a half lengths and equalled the track record. 

Achalaya is out of the multiple Graded stakes winner on turf Wild Heart Dancing and has also produced Grade 3 winner on turf Chess's Dream.

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