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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 Rockport Dancer specifically because he is a proven sire and this will be just her second foal, and we want to make sure she has the best chance possible to start her breeding career off strongly, which was one of the main reasons that we picked Macho Uno for her last year. But whereas Macho Uno was an older stallion coming to the end of his career, Jimmy Creed is just getting started, with what we think is plenty of racetrack and commercial upside still in front of him.
He has also had success already when mated to Unbridled-line mares: Grade 2 winner Kanthaka is out of a dam by a son of Unbridled’s Song (just like Rockport Dancer), and 2019 Laurel stakes winner Meadow Dance is out of a mare by Unbridled’s son Broken Vow, which makes this good for an “A+” rating from TrueNicks.
Physically this is a nice pairing, too: Jimmy Creed is a medium-sized stallion of incredible balance, while Rockport Dancer is a little taller and longer-bodied — hopefully he tidies her foal up a bit. But she was at her best sprinting just like he was, and she demonstrated plenty of the surface versatility that has marked Jimmy Creed’s runners so far, so we can’t wait to see the foal that they produce.
Jimmy Creed wins the G1 Malibu
Kanthaka, by Jimmy Creed from an Unbridled-line mare, wins the G2 San Vicente