Mind Your Biscuits Back Home for Met Mile

After he won the Dubai Golden Shaheen Sponsored By Gulf News (G1) with Mind Your Biscuits the first time around in 2017, co-owner and trainer Chad Summers thought the Metropolitan Handicap (G1) a couple months later might be a possibility.

When the New York-bred son of Posse took a few steps off the trailer upon his return from quarantine after his trip overseas, however, that idea quickly went out the window.

Summers estimates Mind Your Biscuits lost about a 100 pounds from his Dubai trip in 2017, and for his 2018 journey the trainer was determined to make a change for the better. He picked the brains of other trainers—including Kiaran McLaughlin, who ran Frosted  in the 2016 Dubai World Cup Sponsored by Emirates Airline (G1), then saddled the gray to one of the most dominant Met Mile performances in the race's history—and set a course of action ahead of Mind Your Biscuits' repeat win in the March 31 Golden Shaheen.

BALAN: Mind Your Biscuits Rallies to Repeat in Golden Shaheen

Instead of shipping back to the U.S. immediately after the race, Mind Your Biscuits stayed in Dubai an extra 10 days.

"It was a strategic decision," Summers said. "Myself and (trainer Jorge) Navarro talked about it after we saw what happened last year. The horses came back and lost so much weight. Talking with Kiaran McLaughlin, they were there with Frosted for 90 days. When they came back he looked great, and then Frosted did what he did.

"There might be an advantage to staying a little longer to recover. Obviously, we weren't there for 90 days (the entire trip for Mind Your Biscuits was about three weeks), but I thought if we could stay a little longer, it might change things."

When Mind Your Biscuits exited the trailer at Fair Hill Training Center after his quarantine this year, the result was clear. Instead of 100 pounds, he had lost 10. What took five weeks to get his weight back a year ago took almost no time at all.

So now the Runhappy Metropolitan Handicap is not only on the table, but Mind Your Biscuits is the 5-2 favorite on the morning line and the highweight at 122 pounds for the June 9 race at Belmont Park. And while Summers is confident in his horse, even at a distance at which he has yet to win, the trainer sees his main challenger in Chuck Fipke's homebred Bee Jersey, a speedy son of Jersey Town .

"To me, Bee Jersey is the horse to beat," Summers said of the May 6 Steve Sexton Mile Stakes (G3) winner, who earned his first graded win by 5 1/2 lengths and won a Keeneland allowance (also at a mile) by 7 3/4 lengths in April. "That may sound silly, but if he's loose on the lead and I'm giving him five pounds—if your horse is in front, it's your race to lose. Anything can happen when you're behind. If you're in front, all you have to do is not let the ones behind you pass you."

BALAN: Bee Jersey Defeats Girvin in Steve Sexton Mile

Two in the 11-horse field who could challenge Bee Jersey on the front end are One Liner, the 2017 Southwest Stakes (G3) winner who finished second to Irish War Cry last time out in the sloppy Pimlico Special Stakes (G3) May 18, and multiple grade 1 winner Bolt d'Oro, the lone 3-year-old in the field.

Off a testing, 12th-place run in the May 5 Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve (G1), the Medaglia d'Oro  colt owned by trainer Mick Ruis and his wife Wendy is dialing back to a distance that may be in his sweet spot. Although he has raced in two-turn races in his last five attempts, Bolt d'Oro won the seven-furlong Del Mar Futurity (G1) in September with a stalk-and-pounce trip and a late punch.

"I thought the best thing for him was to give him a couple extra weeks and look for this race. This race is speed and stamina," Ruis said of bypassing the Preakness Stakes (G1). "We know he has some speed, and he's bred for stamina. We just thought we'd take a shot here. He's training up to the race really good. We know we're up against some tough older milers, but I think he'll put in a good showing for himself."

Also cutting back in distance for the Met Mile is One Liner, longshot Discreet Lover, and multiple grade 2 winner Good Samaritan.

The sprinters stretching out include West Coast-based grade 1 winner Ransom the Moon, last-out Churchill Downs Stakes presented by TwinSpires.com (G2) winner Limousine Liberal, Churchill Downs runner-up and April 7 Commonwealth Stakes (G3) winner Warrior's Club, and Churchill Downs third Awesome Slew, who last found the winner's circle in the one-turn-mile Ack Ack Stakes (G3) Sept. 30.

HAMMONDS: Limousine Liberal Repeats in Churchill Downs Stakes

One entrant who won't be switching up—other than a steep step up in class—is Whitham Thoroughbreds' McCraken. The 4-year-old Ghostzapper  colt has earned all three of his graded wins around two turns but is undefeated at the one-turn-mile distance, including his first start of 2018, an optional-claiming allowance win May 5 at Churchill Downs. The Ian Wilkes trainee also won the Street Sense Stakes at the distance during his 2-year-old season in 2016.

"He's done nothing but go forward since (his last) race, so I'm very happy with him," Wilkes said. "(He) can run a mile and an eighth, too, but I might just concentrate on a mile. The horse has a great turn of foot. That's the key to it."

Entries: Runhappy Metropolitan H. (G1)

Belmont Park, Saturday, June 09, 2018, Race 9

• Grade I
• 1m
• Dirt
• $1,200,000
• 3 yo's & up
• 4:45 PM (local)

PP	Horse	Jockey	Wgt	Trainer	M/L
1	1Mind Your Biscuits (NY)	Joel Rosario	122	Chad Summers	5/2
2	2Bolt d'Oro (KY)	Florent Geroux	114	Mick Ruis	4/1
3	3Limousine Liberal (KY)	Javier Castellano	117	Ben Colebrook	10/1
4	4McCraken (KY)	Brian Joseph Hernandez, Jr.	118	Ian R. Wilkes	12/1
5	5Good Samaritan (KY)	Jose L. Ortiz	118	William I. Mott	10/1
6	6One Liner (KY)	Irad Ortiz, Jr.	116	Todd A. Pletcher	12/1
7	7Discreet Lover (FL)	Manuel Franco	115	Uriah St. Lewis	50/1
8	8Ransom the Moon (ON)	Flavien Prat	117	Philip D'Amato	10/1
9	9Warrior's Club (KY)	Luis Saez	116	D. Wayne Lukas	20/1
10	10Bee Jersey (KY)	Ricardo Santana, Jr.	118	Steven M. Asmussen	5/1
11	11Awesome Slew (FL)	John R. Velazquez	117	Mark E. Casse	6/1