Mind Your Biscuits 'rounding back into form' for Breeders' Cup
Trainer Chad Summers was given a lesson on how quickly a top charge can go from hero to zero when Mind Your Biscuits, dominating winner of the Dubai Golden Shaheen and Belmont Sprint Championship, threw in a clunker in August's Grade 1 Forego Handicap at Saratoga.
Mind Your Biscuits failed to threaten at any point in the race, and instead faded to a well-beaten sixth place.
What exactly caused Mind Your Biscuits’ demise? Summers really wasn’t sure, but says his 4-year-old colt has been flourishing in his exercises leading into another try at the $1.5 million Breeders' Cup Sprint Nov. 4 at Del Mar.
'Rounding back into form'
Summers said the environment at Belmont Park is much quieter than the one his horses were subject to in Saratoga.
“There, he was in a stall that was right next to a bar,” Summers said. “They had loud music playing until two o’clock in the morning. He just never seemed like he ever really settled there.”
However, while at Belmont, Biscuits has been flashing signs that he a return to his earlier season form is in the works.
“He’s rounding back into form -- completely 100 percent,” Summers said. “You can see it in his coat. He’s probably put on a good 60 to 70 pounds, his coat has turned into this deep liver chestnut, and you can just see it in his eyes. He looks great.”
Mind Your Biscuits worked five furlongs on Saturday in 1:00.33, sixth-fastest of 19 drills at that distance. In the move before that, he fired off a bullet over a half mile, clocking in at 46.55 seconds.
“He’s a fast horse, and fast horses work fast,” Summers said. “When he’s right though, he just does it on his own. Joel (Rosario) will just let him glide over, and when he drops his hands he gets ready for takeoff.”
Pre-Breeders’ Cup gameplan
Summers noted that Mind Your Biscuits will have one more work this weekend at Belmont before shipping to Del Mar on Sunday. From there, he expects Biscuits to have a short blow out the Tuesday before the race.
Summers doesn’t believe that giving his charge a shorter amount of time to acclimate to the quirky Del Mar surface will be an issue, noting that Mind Your Biscuits has proven that he does not need to take his track with him to run his best race.
“He’s always been able to run well at other tracks,” Summers said. “He was second in Parx, second at Gulfstream, he won in Dubai, and has won over all three NYRA tracks. He’s never been dependent on one track, and when he’s right and wants to run, I feel like he’d run over glass.”
Despite not being worried about the surface, Summers is concerned that there is no place to graze on the Del Mar backside.
“It’s funny, we were in Dubai, in the middle of a desert, and there was lush, beautiful grass there,” Summers said. “Now we’re going to San Diego, where they tell me the weather is perfect every day, and there is no grass on the entire backside.
“You have some of the best horses in the world coming out there, and they aren’t going to have the ability to graze after they are done training in the morning. It’s kind of a routine that we do, and it’s a bit disappointing.”
The deepest field top to bottom
“You certainly have to have respect," Summers said of his horse's Breeders' Cup Sprint competition.
All six Win and You're In contenders are bound for Del Mar in addition to defending race winner Drefong. Mind Your Biscuits finished second by 1 1/4 lengths last year.
“Drefong is definitely the one to beat," Summers added. "He’s the reigning champion, he’s 3-for-3 against us and, on his best day, he’s as good as any horse in the country right now.”
The Sprint will also feature a star-studded cast that includes six Grade 1 winners.
“Drefong is definitely the one to beat, but you also have Roy H and Imperial Hint, who look like they are coming into the race in top form,” Summers said. “You also have El Deal, and what (Jorge) Navarro has been able to do with him is incredible. I would think that from top to bottom, the Sprint is the deepest race amongst all the contenders.”