Strong Quality’s pace advantage helped him record a narrow head victory over Beatbox in the $100,000 Colonel E.R. Bradley Stakes at Fair Grounds on Saturday. Able to secure a clear lead and set modest fractions of 24.33 seconds for the quarter, 49.13 for the half and 1:12.80 for six furlongs, Strong Quality had enough left late to withstand the bid of Beatbox, under Joel Rosario, to record the narrow victory. Beatbox was six lengths clear of third-place finisher Rising Empire. Duke of Carthania was fourth, followed by English Tavern and Protonic Empire. Brigadier General, Who Took the Money and Leave It to Kitten scratched. It was the fourth win on the card for jockey Florent Geroux, who would go on to win his fifth aboard Saudi Crown in the Louisiana Stakes. :: Bet with the Best! Get FREE All-Access PPs and Weekly Cashback when you wager on DRF Bets. Geroux said Strong Quality’s “best weapon is his stride. He can cover a lot of ground very easily, so I didn’t want to wait too long” to get him running. “What a great ride by Florent, he come into the paddock very positive how he was going to ride him, he didn’t want to turn it into a sprint,” said David Carroll, assistant to trainer Mark Casse. Strong Quality, a 5-year-old son of Quality Road owned by Gary Barber and the Kinsman Stable of the Steinbrenner family, covered the 1 1/16-mile in 1:42.05 and returned $3.80 as the favorite. Creative Cairo wins Marie Krantz While Geroux won the Colonel Bradley on the lead, he rallied Creative Cairo from last to win the $100,000 Marie Krantz Memorial by 1 1/2 lengths. Join the Dance, who finished third in the Blushing KD, took the lead in upper stretch in the Krantz but had to settle for second, a neck in front of Lovely Princess. Tufani, the Krantz favorite coming off a win in the Pago Hop Stakes, finished fourth, followed by Tryinmyheartout, Swoonatra, Fancy Martini and Unbridled Mary. Anatolian scratched. The win was just the third in 18 starts for Creative Cairo, a 6-year-old mare owned by the Estate of Brereton Jones, the former Kentucky governor who also bred the mare. She has made her last six starts for Lindsay Schultz after beginning her career in the barn of Christophe Clement. In the Blushing KD, Creative Cairo had the lead right before the wire and right after it but lost a head bob to Lovely Princess. Saturday, in the Krantz, Creative Cairo, who was bumped some at the break, was in the back of the pack behind a modest pace of 47.97 seconds for the half and 1:12.22 for six furlongs set by Swoonatra. Around the far turn, Creative Cairo launched a wide bid and sustained her run while seven wide through the stretch to get the victory. Geroux, in a post-race interview broadcast by Fair Grounds, said he let Cairo Prince “get in a good rhythm. When she was ready to bounce, I put her on the outside and she gave me a very nice kick. I thought she ran a little bit better than last time. “Unfortunately, last time, she got beat a very ugly head bob - I had it before the wire and after the wire but on the wire Lovely princess had it,” Geroux said. “She deserved to win and I’m glad Lindsay and the owners gave me another chance on her.” Creative Cairo covered the 1 1/16 miles in 1:42.55 and returned $13.20 as the third choice. “She’s an older mare that keeps getting better and better with each run,” Schultz said. “She loves going a mile and a half, but she can do the mile and a sixteenth. Flo was able to let her run and not get her stopped and that’s what she needs.” :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.