Creed’s Gold returned to Woodbine in style, scoring with authority to repeat in Saturday’s (G3) $175,000 Hendrie Stakes at Woodbine.
Last time the Mark Casse-charge raced at the Toronto oval, she wired a field of eight to score by 3 3/4 lengths in the 2025 running of the Hendrie Stakes, a 6 1/2-furlong main track sprint for fillies and mares, three-year-olds and up.
In the 2026 edition, the five-year-old daughter of Jimmy Creed was away sharply from post position 2 and settled kindly in 3rd under Rafael Hernandez, who was aboard for the 2025 Hendrie triumph.
The Wesley Ward-trained Kehoe Beach, with Woodbine leading rider Pietro Moran up, led the field of 9 by a 1/2 length through an opening quarter-mile in :22.38 and extended that lead to 1 1/2 lengths through an opening 4-furlongs in :45.08
Around the turn, Hernandez saved ground on the fence, then angled Creed’s Gold off the rail at top of the lane, as another Casse trainee Time to Dazzle (with Fraser Aebly up) loomed three wide.
With Kehoe Beach beginning to labour, Hernandez called on Creed’s Gold for run and she responded in the 2 path, powering home to score by 1 1/2 lengths over stablemate Time to Dazzle in a final time of 1:16.14.
Creed’s Gold earned a career high 96 Beyer Speed Figure for her front-running win in last year’s Hendrie. And Hernandez noted her versatility in taking the ’26 edition.
“Last season she went to the lead, broke good. You know, today good, but it was a lot of speed. So you can see, you can do anything you want with her. And she showed up to this. She can go to the lead, stay close, and she still made it her run.”
Creed’s Gold was freshened following the ’25 Hendrie and showed her professionalism winning her comeback race, a 1 3/4 length win in the 5-furlong Lightning City Stakes on turf at Tampa Bay Downs in February.
She prepped for her Hendrie defense with a trio of local works including a bullet 5 panel move (:59.40) on July 9th.
Bred in Kentucky by Linda Griggs and owned by Kristin Meldahl, the chestnut mare (Jimmy Creed – Foxyfromfairbanks by Fairbanks) improved to 6-3-3 from 16 career starts.
Returning to Lasix and synthetic for the first time since the ’25 Hendrie, Creed’s Gold improved to 3-0-0 on synthetic from 4 career starts.
Listed at 3-1 on the morning line, the winner was the race time favourite at 1.75 to 1 and returned $5.50 for the win. Time to Dazzle was 2nd, Reagan’s Flame rallied for third, and 24-1 longshot Uphill Dance was 4th.
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