Santa Anita: Jimmy Creed to miss Strub Stakes

Shigeki Kikkawa

Jimmy Creed has missed training due to an elevated temperature.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Jimmy Creed, winner of the Grade 1 Malibu Stakes at Santa Anita on Dec. 26, will miss a scheduled start in the $200,000 Strub Stakes on Feb. 2 because of a recent illness.

Trainer Richard Mandella said Tuesday that Jimmy Creed will be pointed to the $200,000 San Carlos Stakes over seven furlongs Feb. 23 as a substitute.

Jimmy Creed missed training earlier this month because of an elevated temperature. Mandella had hoped that Jimmy Creed would rebound quick enough to start in the Strub Stakes, but said Tuesday that he was “leaning toward not running.”

“I’ll point for the San Carlos,” he said. “If I don’t make [the Strub], I don’t make the” Big Cap.

The $750,000 Santa Anita Handicap is run over 1 1/4 miles on March 2, a distance Jimmy Creed has never tried.

Jimmy Creed resumed galloping last weekend and has not had a recurrence of the illness.

“He’s fine,” Mandella said. “I just don’t want to push him if I shouldn’t.”

Owned by B. Wayne Hughes, Jimmy Creed has won 3 of 7 starts and $313,000. The Malibu Stakes over seven furlongs was his first stakes win. Earlier in 2012, Jimmy Creed was third in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Sprint Championship and ninth in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Santa Anita in November.

The absence of Jimmy Creed from the Strub Stakes leaves Fed Biz, Tritap, and Guilt Trip, the first three finishers of the $150,000 San Fernando Stakes on Jan. 12, as the leading contenders for the Grade 2 Strub Stakes, which is run over 1 1/8 miles for 4-year-olds.