Mind Your Biscuits to prep for Breeders' Cup at Churchill Downs

Already a proven sprinter when he won the Group 1 Dubai Golden Shaheen for the second year in a row last spring, Mind Your Biscuits will remain routing to conclude his 5-year-old season.

Off the horse's runner-up finish to Diversify in the Grade 1 Whitney Stakes, trainer Chad Summers told KXnO’s Horse Racing Talk he's planning to run Mind Your Biscuits next in Churchill Downs' Grade 3 Lukas Classic, likely passing on the Grade 1 Woodward on Sept. 1 at Saratoga.

The Lukas Classic runs Sept. 29 at 1 1/8 miles over the same surface Mind Your Biscuits could then run in the Nov. 3 Breeders' Cup Classic.

Summers is also keeping Mind Your Biscuits' Breeders’ Cup options open. The Sprint and the Dirt Mile are other possibilities depending on how the fields shape up.

“We’re never going to duck anybody. We’re never going to be afraid of anybody,” Summers said. “We have a lot of confidence in our horse, and we’ll try to make the best decision for him on that day.”

Mind Your Biscuits finished third in the 2017 Sprint and was runner-up the year before that. 

Admitting it can be difficult for a horse like Mind Your Biscuits to close in on the pace in certain scenarios – like when Diversify jumped to the early Whitney lead – Summers was encouraged to see his horse gallop past Diversify after the wire in his first-ever route race.

“He’s going to have some questions to answer along the way as far as pace pressure in the Breeders’ Cup Classic,” Summers said of Diversify, “and, does he not like Churchill Downs?”

A fellow New York-bred, Diversify was fourth as a top choice in last November's Grade 1 Clark Handicap under the Twin Spires.

Overall, Summers said connections have two goals with Mind Your Biscuits. The first to become the richest New York-bred, which they accomplished after Dubai this year. The second: to win a Breeders’ Cup race. After this season, he is scheduled to stand at stud at Shadai Farm in Japan.