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Our initial pair of Housatonic Recommended Matings of 2020 both feature one of our top value stallions for the season in Spendthrift Farm’s up-and-coming Jimmy Creed, who will be the mate of the young mares Kuznetsov and Rockport Dancer.
Jimmy Creed is a son of the leading sire Distorted Humor, out of the Grade 1-winning sprinter Hookedonthefeelin (making him a half-brother to Grade 1-winning sprinter Pussycat Doll). After selling for $900,000 as a yearling, Jimmy Creed scored his own Grade 1 sprint victory in the 7-furlong Malibu as a 3YO over the likes of Private Zone, Fed Biz and The Lumber Guy, having earlier in the season scored twice at 6 furlongs and placed in the G1 Santa Anita Sprint Championship at 6 furlongs and in the 1-mile El Cajon Stakes. He came back at 4YO to take the G2 Potrero Grande Stakes at 6-1/2 furlongs, and finish 3rd in the G1 Bing Crosby on the all-weather.
Jimmy Creed retired to his owner’s Spendthrift Farm for the 2014 breeding season, and with his first crop now 4YOs, he leads all third-crop sires by black-type winners, black-type horses and Graded winners while ranking second by Graded black-type horses, according to the TDN’s Sire Lists. His eleven stakes winners so far is good for 5% of his foals, and he sports a 1.42 AEI compared to just a 0.98 CI, meaning he moves his mares way up. His four Graded winners include the top-class King Jack, who earned a 111 Beyer taking the G2 Gallant Bob at 6 furlongs on dirt, plus the likes of Casa Creed, who won the G2 National Museum of Racing HOF Stakes going a mile on turf.
After starting out at $12,500 for his first season, Jimmy Creed’s subsequent crops were conceived at fees down to as low as $5,000 advertised, but his early success earned him a bump to $15,000 in 2018 when he covered 164 mares (his increase in mares-bred led the country that season), and $20,000 for 2019. He’ll stand the 2020 season for $15,000, and we think that’s well worth the money given what he’s got coming in the pipeline, which should only enhance his credentials.
Jimmy Creed will be an excellent fit for Kuznetsov specifically for a couple of reasons. First of all, they’re an excellent like-to-like physical pairing, both being strong-bodied, muscular types with the strong hind-quarters associated with sprinters, though she might actually be a touch taller and more substantial than him. But they should produce a quick-looking foal that will have a right to excel on either turf or dirt.
Jimmy Creed fits Kuznetsov very well on pedigree, too. TrueNicks rates the Distorted Humor/Elusive Quality cross a “B+”, and 18% of Jimmy Creed’s stakes winners have the 4×4 inbreeding to Mr. Prospector that will be present in this foal. But even more importantly, Kuznetsov is a half-sister to the 2019 stakes winner Oldies But Goodies, who is by Maclean’s Music — another son of Distorted Humor like Jimmy Creed — and their dam has two more Maclean’s Music foals in the pipeline. So this is a matchup that has worked for the immediate female family, and has more chances to make it look even better in the future.
Finally, as this will be just the second foal out of Kuznetsov, it was important that we find her a mate that is already proven in order to give her the best start to her breeding career possible (one of the reasons we chose Weigelia for her first mating). Given Jimmy Creed’s results to this point, not to mention the racetrack and commercial upside that we think exists for his future foals, he strikes a perfect balance of proven and potential value, and we’re excited to be sending Kuznetsov to him next spring.
Jimmy Creed wins the G1 Malibu
Kuznetsov’s half-brother Oldies But Goodies (by a son of Distorted Humor) wins the Ben’s Cat Stakes