Casa Creed digs in to take $100K Kitten’s Joy S.

Casa Creed got his first stakes win on Saturday at Gulfstream Park with a very gritty performance in the $100,000 Kitten’s Joy S., holding off Henley’s Joy and Royal Urn to win the 7 1/2-furlong turf affair in a three-way photo.

The 3-year-old son of Jimmy Creed was making his turf debut, as well as his first start around two turns, in the Kitten’s Joy.

Hard-pushed in between horses out of the gate, Casa Creed emerged from a scramble to establish a clear spot in second as the field hit the backstretch. Royal Urn set mild fractions of :49.03 for the half-mile and 1:13.27 for six furlongs, and still held the lead in mid-stretch, but Casa Creed would not be denied, and forged ahead in deep stretch, outlasting Henley’s Joy by a neck for the win.

Casa Creed has two wins in five starts and has now earned $111,408 for his owners LRE Racing LLC and JEH Racing Stable LLC, who purchased the bay colt for $105,000 out of the 2017 Keeneland September Yearling sale.

Casa Creed is the first foal out of Achalaya, whose dam Wild Heart Dancing was a multiple graded stakes winner of nearly $600,000.

Jimmy Creed wrapped up 2018 as a top-five Second-Crop sire with over $3.3 million in progeny earnings, five stakes winners, and the Grade 1-placed duo of Spectator and Meadow Dance. He is standing this year at Spendthrift Farm for $20,000 live foal.