Mind Your Biscuits Puts Stamina to the Test in Whitney

The past three and a half years have been all about what Mind Your Biscuits can achieve—three grade 1 victories, two of which were captured halfway around the world in fairly improbable fashion. The $30,000 purchase is now the richest New York-bred of all time with more than $3.9 million in earnings, and he has cemented himself as one of the most dangerous forces in a sprint division full of snipers.

With Mind Your Biscuits' residency in the Shadai Farm breeding shed just months away, trainer and co-owner Chad Summers has decided the time is now to find out what the 5-year-old chestnut is capable of. Summers has long believed the scope of the son of Posse's ability extends beyond the distance range that has thus far defined him. He would kick himself if he let the horse who has elevated his professional life finish racing without the opportunity to reinvent himself.

Already established as one of the nation's top sprinters, Mind Your Biscuits is set to see how far his wicked turn of foot can take him. The reigning New York-bred Horse of the Year will stretch out beyond one mile for the first time in his career when he faces a field that includes longwinded grade 1 winners Diversify and Tapwrit in the $1.2 million Whitney Stakes (G1) going 1 1/8 miles Aug. 4 at Saratoga Race Course.

To those questioning the wisdom of taking a horse who has yet to win beyond seven furlongs and putting him into the fire of the handicap ranks, Summers has his answers at the ready. The short version is, having never tried two turns before, there is no evidence Mind Your Biscuits can't handle what will be asked of him Saturday. The extended version provides much more method to his connections' not-so-mad way of thinking.

When Mind Your Biscuits finished second to Sharp Azteca in the Cigar Mile Handicap Presented by NYRA Bets (G1) in December—his first try at eight furlongs since his 2-year-old season—he was well clear of Practical Joke , who at that point had never lost around one turn. When he earned his second straight score in the 1,200-meter Dubai Golden Shaheen Sponsored By Gulf News (G1) in March, he unleashed a come-from-the-clouds move that saw him pass five horses in the final 200 meters to nail the brilliant X Y Jet at the wire. And had he had a bit more ground to work in the June 9 Runhappy Metropolitan Handicap (G1) at Belmont Park, it might have been his nose in front instead of Bee Jersey's, given the surge he was making at the wire.

With respect to the older dirt males, there are no overwhelming forces like Gun Runner  showing up in the entry box for this year's Whitney. And considering Mind Your Biscuits will get a seven-pound weight allowance up against 7-5 morning-line favorite Diversify, there was everything to gain, in Summers' mind, by testing his charge's stamina on this particular stage.

"I think the timing of the race gives us plenty of time where if the experiment does not go as planned, it gives us time to kind of get back to the Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile or the Sprint," Summers said. "And I think looking around at the divisions, I think this (handicap) division is wide-open. And to be honest, (two turns) is something that I always thought he would be better at doing.

"It's the way he finishes up his races and his gallops in the morning time, his intelligence and his ability to take the turns. One of his biggest advantages is the way he takes that turn and kind of rockets off that, and so now he has two opportunities to do that. I'm more (inclined) to think that there is no reason why he can't do it. There are these people who have these strong opinions that he can't do it. Maybe they know something I don't know. But he's never done it before, so I'm not sure why he can't do it."

As Summers will attest, Mind Your Biscuits has a history of inspiring some audacious actions and making good on them.

Summers purchased his leading charge on behalf of clients privately when he failed to meet his reserve at the 2015 Ocala Breeders' Sales April 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale, and in March 2017, just months after Summers took out his training license, it was the agile colt who gave his caretaker the distinction of being a top-level conditioner when he overcame the far outside post to prevail in that year's edition of the Dubai Golden Shaheen.

The remarkable journey Mind Your Biscuits has taken him on is something Summers says he probably won't fully reflect upon until he is sitting on a plane this winter after seeing his boy off in Japan. What most fills his mind of late is how to best build off his runner's strengths and how he can get his first career grade 1 winner to end his racing days as one whose ability is held up as a standard of versatile and enduring class.

"Obviously, we appreciate everything he's accomplished, and we don't take any of it for granted. So you just try to keep going," Summers said. "We're at the point now when you know you're on the back nine of his racing career; it's what milestones can we hit with him to make sure that legacy kind of stays entrenched. Right now, he's the leading New York-bred of all time. Let's keep going, because the New York-bred program gets better and better.

"Can we get a few more grade 1s? Can we enter the conversation of 'Is he a Hall of Fame-worthy horse?' Right now, we're probably a little short, but if you win the Whitney and a win a Breeders' Cup and … if you're a four-, five-, six-time grade 1 winner where you're a winner at distances from six furlongs to nine or 10 furlongs, I think it would be tough to make that case to keep him out. That kind of stuff, we think about it."

Co-owned by Summers and his family, Shadai Farm, Head of Plains Partners, J Stables, and Michael Kisber, Mind Your Biscuits is 1-for-5 at Saratoga, with his lone win at the Spa came in the 2016 Amsterdam Stakes (G2) when he was trained by Robert Falcone Jr. He has seven wins from 22 starts and has finished worse than third just three times in his career.

"(If he doesn't win the Whitney), I don't think it would tarnish his record," Summers said, adding with a laugh, "It will just give more fodder for people to say I'm not a good trainer."

Where Mind Your Biscuits' presence in the Whitney is the culmination of a plan that has been in his team's head for some time, Diversify was only confirmed for the test hours before the race was drawn July 31.

After the son of Bellamy Road  freaked the July 7 Suburban Stakes (G2), winning the 1 1/4-mile race by 6 1/2 lengths in 1:59.84, trainer Rick Violette Jr. planned to bypass the Whitney and wait for the Sept. 1 Woodward Stakes (G1). The 5-year-old gelding helped prompt the change in course when he threw down a bullet five-furlong work in :59.06 July 29 at Saratoga, signaling to his trainer that his previous effort didn't snatch all the starch out of him.

"I was very concerned after the Suburban," Violette said. "He had run such a huge race that I thought that four weeks might be too quick. But he kept making a liar out of me. He ate well, trained well, and breezed awfully well on Sunday. His blood has a habit of spiking up and down, so we had to make sure that duck was in a row. We got back those results today. Sometimes, when your horse is doing good, you're supposed to run."

Diversify earned both his Suburban triumph and his win in last year's Jockey Club Gold Cup Stakes (G1) in gate-to-wire fashion, and Violette expects his New York-bred charge to have a strong say in the early action again out of post 6 Saturday.

"We have a few options. He can be tactical, and if someone wants to get silly out there, we can certainly follow that lead," Violette said. "We'll be aggressive; the break is always important, (whether) it's a mile and a half or five-eighths, it's critical there. He has the ability and has a very high cruising speed and can keep going. A lot of times, we just throw the gauntlet down."

Ken and Sarah Ramsey's Backyard Heaven will look to rebound for trainer Chad Brown after snapping a three-race win streak in the June 16 Stephen Foster Handicap (G1) last time out, giving way late to finish sixth. The Foster was Backyard Heaven's fifth career start and second consecutive race at Churchill Downs. In the May 4 Alysheba Stakes presented by Sentient Jet (G2), the 4-year-old Tizway colt raced close to the pace and drew off to a 4 1/2-length win over a field that included fellow Whitney entrant Good Samaritan.

"The horse is training well. It's shaping up like a tough one," said the two-time Eclipse Award-winning trainer. "He's only run the one bad race for us at Churchill. Maybe it was the heat. We'll draw a line through it because the horse has been training well since, and hopefully he bounces back and regains the form he has. If he redeems himself and comes back to a performance like that, I feel he can be a real contender in this race."

Todd Pletcher trainee Tapwrit is seeking his first win since taking the 2017 Belmont Stakes Presented by NYRA Bets (G1). The son of Tapit  was given the rest of his sophomore year off following a fourth-place finish in the Travers Stakes Presented by NYRA Bets (G1). He has raced twice in 2018, finishing third in an optional claimer in June at Belmont Park and fifth as the favorite in the Suburban.

Entries: Whitney S. (G1)

Saratoga Race Course, Saturday, August 04, 2018, Race 9

• Grade I
• 1 1/8m
• Dirt
• $1,200,000
• 3 yo's & up
• 5:46 PM (local)

PP	Horse	Jockey	Wgt	Trainer	M/L
1	1Tapwrit (KY)	John R. Velazquez	124	Todd A. Pletcher	6/1
2	2Backyard Heaven (KY)	Javier Castellano	121	Chad C. Brown	9/2
3	3Dalmore (FL)	Ricardo Santana, Jr.	117	Robert B. Hess, Jr.	30/1
4	4Mind Your Biscuits (NY)	Joel Rosario	117	Chad Summers	2/1
5	5Discreet Lover (FL)	Manuel Franco	119	Uriah St. Lewis	30/1
6	6Diversify (NY)	Irad Ortiz, Jr.	124	Richard A. Violette, Jr.	7/5
7	7Good Samaritan (KY)	Jose L. Ortiz	121	William I. Mott	12/1
8	8McCraken (KY)	Brian Joseph Hernandez, Jr.	117	Ian R. Wilkes	15/1