When we send Mad Grace to the fascinating first-year stallion Casa Creed at Mill Ridge in 2025, it will result in a foal whose parents raced a combined 12 seasons, with 77 starts between them, for 18 wins, 13 second-place finishes, and 14 third-place finishes — talk about durability and consistency! There’s also plenty of versatility involved, too, as Casa Creed won on dirt and turf from six furlongs to a mile-and-a-sixteenth, while Mad Grace won on dirt and turf from seven furlongs to one-and-three-eighths miles.
An ultra-consistent and versatile runner with a throwback physique, the multiple Grade 1 winner Casa Creed was a winner on dirt at Saratoga as a 2YO. He then switched to the turf for his 3YO debut and became a black-type winner that day in Gulfstream’s Kitten’s Joy Stakes. He added his first graded victory at Saratoga that summer when taking the Grade 2 Hall of Fame, and picked up a Grade 1 placing in the Fourstardave Stakes at the Spa at 4YO. At 5YO he scored in the Grade 1 Jaipur sprinting 6 furlongs over Belmont’s turf course, earning a 105 Beyer Speed Figure, and he repeated that performance as a 6YO (104 BSF that year).
Following his second Jaipur victory, Casa Creed made it two straight when stretched out to a mile for that year’s Grade 1 Fourstardave (another 104 BSF). Returned to the races at 7YO, Casa Creed was 3rd in the Grade 1 Jaipur, triumphed in the Grade 3 Kelso, and went back-to-back in the Grade 1 Fourstardave (102 BSF). He matched his career top Beyer of 105 when 3rd, beaten just a half-length for the win, in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Mile that fall. Casa Creed retired after racing twice more at 8YO with total earnings of over $2.6 million.
Mad Grace, meanwhile, was a maiden special weight winner at 3YO going a mile on turf and an allowance winner at 7 furlongs on dirt for Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen, then went on to score additional victories at 1-1/16 miles on dirt, a mile on turf, 1-3/8 miles on turf, a mile on dirt, and 7-1/2 furlongs on turf. She also placed in a pair of non-black type stakes races at Rillito sprinting 5-1/2 furlongs and 6-1/2 furlongs on dirt. Her class, consistency and longevity are a testament to her late sire, the Eclipse Champion and leading turf stallion English Channel. Mad Grace’s surface and distance versatility might be surprising for an offspring of English Channel, but as a half-sister to the multiple Grade 3 winner on dirt Hence, out of a well-bred daughter of A.P. Indy, there is plenty to explain how she could be equally adept on both surfaces and across a range of distances.
Physically, Casa Creed and Mad Grace are both throwback types, as well. Casa Creed is a tall, scopey, rangy horse who fits one’s impression of a traditional staying-type rather than the late-running sprinter/miler that he was, while Mad Grace is a strong, slightly coarse mare who resembles black-and-white photos of the racemares of yesteryear.
There are reasons that this match should work on pedigree, as well, including the appearance of multiple G2 winner Regal Ransom (by Casa Creed’s grandsire Distorted Humor) under Mad Grace’s 2nd dam, and a multiple black-type winner by Coronado’s Quest (a son of Forty Niner, like Distorted Humor) under her 3rd dam. There’s also an 11-time winning half-brother to Mad Grace’s dam by a horse called Chief’s Crown, who happens to be the grandsire of Casa Creed’s broodmare sire Bellamy Road — probably a bit attenuated to mean much, but it’s still there.
With this mating, though, we’re relying on the similarities in type and style to produce a foal that takes after both (or either) of its parents and races successfully on a variety of surfaces for a long, long time!