Mind Your Biscuits may stretch out for top summer Grade 1s

Trainer Chad Summers reported that Mind Your Biscuits, runner up in Saturday's Grade 1 Met Mile, was doing super physically following his nose defeat to the front-running Bee Jersey in the one-mile race. The strong-closing son of Posse once again applied his late kick, but fell short at the wire in an effort to catch the winner, who led from start to finish en route to his fourth-straight victory.

Making his first start since winning his second Group 1 Dubai Golden Shaheen in Dubai, Mind Your Biscuits was a victim of the pace, Summers said.

"I saw that [Bee Jersey] still had something left in the tank," said Summers. "When you see the first quarter in 23 [seconds] you get a little bit concerned. I thought Joel [Rosario] rode [Mind Your Biscuits] perfect. We came up with a couple of game plans, and once the pace was developing as it was he had to be a little bit closer, and when he's closer he closes, but he doesn't have that same dynamite kick like he showed in Dubai. I'm proud of him. He shows up every time, and I think he stopped some of his critics.

"When the nominations came out, and you had an idea of who was going to the race, it looked like Bee Jersey, on paper, had the chance to be lone speed. It looked like Bee Jersey was the horse to beat. He had the 10 hole, we had the 1 hole, and we gave him four pounds. I know one thing, I tip my cap to him, but I wouldn't mind running against him again."

Mind Your Biscuits - who also owns victories in the Grade 2 Amsterdam, Grade 1 Malibu and Grade 2 Belmont Sprint Championship through 22 lifetime starts and is the all-time leading New York-bred in purses won with $3.9 million - proved a lot in yesterday's race, and Summers has plenty to think about in the upcoming days.

"He hasn't come out of a race this good since the [2016] Gallant Bob, and that's when we said, 'All right, we'll go to the Breeders' Cup,'" said Summers. "I think in the immediate here and now, you nominate to the Belmont Sprint Championship [Grade 2 on July 7 at Belmont] because it's logically the next one up, but also to look at stretching him out, possibly going in to the Whitney [Grade 1 on August 4at Saratoga] or the Woodward [Grade 1 on September 1], but that all depends.

"I think he can stretch out," he added. "I don't see any reason why a mile has to be his max. He was closing on this horse, maybe this is as far as he wants, but he's as honest as they come. I'm hoping as the year continues out he can leave no doubt that he's the best New York-bred of all time. It was a big weekend for New York-breds."