'Wiser' Mind Your Biscuits preps for Breeders' Cup 2017
Multiple graded stakes winner Mind Your Biscuits breezed four furlongs in 47.88 seconds in company shortly after the renovation break on the main track Saturday morning at Belmont, his last major preparation for the Grade 1, $1.5 million TwinSpires Breeders' Cup Sprint.
With jockey Joel Rosario aboard for the move, the 4-year-old New York-bred broke behind his workmate and blew past down the lane before galloping out through five furlongs in 1:01 and out six furlongs in 1:13, according to NYRA clockers.
The breeze was the fifth at Belmont for Mind Your Biscuits since he finished sixth to Drefong in the Grade 1 Forego on August 26 at Saratoga, his first off-the-board finish since the 2016 Grade 1 King's Bishop.
"I thought it was fine. It was a useful work, he got what he needed out of it," said trainer Chad Summers. "If we call the Forego a non-effort, which is what I think it was, I think he had to get a little work in company there, have a little target to get those competitive juices flowing heading into the Breeders' Cup.
"It's not about time with us, it's about how they look," he added. "He galloped out well today. He galloped out all the way to the gate. I got him in 1:41 for a mile and 1:13 for three-quarters. It's not a bad work; it's a useful work. It's your last major work before the Breeders' Cup. I thought it was fine, it just wasn't perfect. The last three going into today were perfect. We couldn't have scripted those better."
Named the 2016 New York-bred Horse of the Year by the New York Thoroughbred Breeders, the chestnut colt by Posse began his 2017 season with a second-place finish in the Grade 3 Gulfstream Park Sprint before going on to win the Group 1 Dubai Golden Shaheen at Meydan Racecourse in March and the Grade 2 Belmont Sprint Championship on July 8, where he earned an all-fees-paid berth into the TwinSpires Sprint on November 4 at Del Mar. Mind Your Biscuits boasts a 6-6-2 record from 17 starts for lifetime earnings of more than $2.2 million.
"He's gotten a little older and a little wiser and he doesn't need to put forth everything in the morning," Summers said. "Coming off a flat effort, you could say that you have to make up for it, but he's got a 16-race body of work that speaks for itself. As long as he got enough out of it, which I think he did, we'll take this one for what it is and move forward."
Mind Your Biscuits is scheduled to ship to Southern California on Tuesday and is expected to have a blowout at Del Mar in the days leading up to the race, "like we did in Dubai," said Summers.