Mind Your Biscuits Set for Gulfstream Park Sprint

Mind Your Biscuits launched his 3-year-old season with a victory over New York-bred competition at Aqueduct Racetrack and ended the 2016 campaign with a triumph in the Malibu Stakes (G1) at Santa Anita Park.

Now the son of Posse is scheduled to kick off his 2017 season in the $100,000 Gulfstream Park Sprint (G3) Feb. 25.

"He's a serious horse," said Chad Summers, who co-owns Mind Your Biscuits in a partnership that includes J Stables and Head of Plains Partners. "We think he has a really bright 2017 ahead of him."

Summers has obtained his trainer's license since the Malibu and is slated to saddle his first starter, Golden Pirate, in the sixth race Feb. 24 at Gulfstream Park before sending out his first graded stakes starter, Mind Your Biscuits, for the 6 1/2-furlong Sprint.

Mind Your Biscuits concluded his 3-year-old season with a record that included graded stakes victories in the Amsterdam (G2) at Saratoga Race Course, as well as graded stakes placings in the Gallant Bob (G3) at Parx Racing and the TwinSpires Breeders' Cup Sprint (G1) at Santa Anita. Robert Falcone Jr. trained Mind Your Biscuits in 2016.

Mind Your Biscuits demonstrated his ability to compete in grade 1 company in the Breeders' Cup Sprint at Santa Anita Nov. 5, when he closed from last to finish third, 1 1/4 lengths behind victorious pacesetter Defrong and a nose behind runner-up Masochistic. (Mind Your Biscuits would later be awarded second place after the disqualification of the runner-up.)

"Obviously, he may have been farther back than he needed to be," Summers said. "Being 10 lengths behind on that type of track is tough to overcome, but he made up eight lengths in the stretch. He got beat a length and a quarter, and he was galloping out in front of those horses. We were proud of his effort. I thought he ran a great race. To be a New York-bred and be on the biggest stage in the Breeders' Cup—that was huge."

Mind Your Biscuits returned to Santa Anita for the seven-furlong Malibu, in which he raced closer to the pace and got up in deep stretch to defeat favored Sharp Azteca by a half-length.

BALAN: Mind Your Biscuits Scores Grade 1 in Malibu

"We were expecting a big effort from him, but when you're running against horses like Sharp Azteca, and with Bob Baffert sending three horses out for the race, you've got to make sure you've got your 'A' game," Summers said. "We're fortunate that we did."

Mind Your Biscuits, who was flattered when Sharp Azteca followed up his second-place finish in the Malibu with a 4 1/2-length romp in the Gulfstream Park Handicap (G2) Feb. 11, is scheduled to be reunited with jockey Joel Rosario in the Gulfstream Sprint.

Multiple graded stakes winner Unified is also scheduled to make his 2017 debut in the Gulfstream Sprint, set to return from an eight-month layoff since a sustaining his first loss in the Pegasus Stakes (G3) at Monmouth Park in June.

"He ran so poor in his last race. He looked like he came out of the race okay, but when we went up to Saratoga, just generally speaking, it looked like he lost a lot of weight and wasn't going quite as sound," trainer Jimmy Jerkens said. "We couldn't pin it down to any one thing. We decided to give him the rest of the year."

Prior to his first defeat, the son of Candy Ride   won three straight races. He graduated at first asking at Gulfstream Feb. 21 before he captured the Bay Shore (G3) at Aqueduct Racetrack April 9 and the Peter Pan (G2) at Belmont Park June 19.

NOVAK: Unified Stays Perfect in Peter Pan

"He had done a lot in a short time. We asked the impossible of him and he gave it to us," Jerkens said. "He won the Bay Shore and we stretched him out in the Peter Pan. I think it got to him a little bit."