Lukas Classic Make-or-Break Time for Mind Your Biscuits
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Photo: Nicole Marie
Mind Your Biscuits
Here's what is certain as the twilight begins to descend on the career of the richest New York-bred in racing history.
Barring unforeseen injury or ailment, Mind Your Biscuits will be part of the Breeders' Cup World Championships card Nov. 3 at Churchill Downs. He then will likely have at least one more start under the care of his trainer and co-owner Chad Summers before joining the Shadai Farm stallion roster in Japan, where he will attempt to make North American stud farms sorry for not keeping him home.
Currently in flux for the 5-year-old son of Posse is how long a Breeders' Cup road he will travel as he puts the final touches on his multiple grade 1-winning career. With the 10-furlong Breeders' Cup Classic (G1), Dirt Mile (G1), and six-furlong Twinspires Sprint (G1) all in play, Summers is sending his charge out for a trial run of sorts this weekend in hopes of gaining answers.
After finishing second in last month's 1 1/8-mile Whitney Stakes (G1), his first start around two turns, Mind Your Biscuits will stay at that distance in an attempt to determine his Breeders' Cup target when he starts in the $200,000 Lukas Classic Stakes (G3) Sept. 29 at Churchill.
With three top-level victories to Mind Your Biscuits' credit over sprint distances, it would be easy for Summers to let the horse who brought his first graded stakes win as a trainer play out the remainder of his career in his comfort zone. But even as his charge was coming from the clouds to win back-to-back editions of the Dubai Golden Shaheen Sponsored By Gulf News (G1), Summers was steadfast in his belief that the chestnut's turn of foot could be successful at eight furlongs and beyond.
In his next start, Mind Your Biscuits finished a close second in the Runhappy Metropolitan Handicap (G1). The Whitney result begged for a bigger sample size. On one hand, Mind Your Biscuits was well-beaten by Diversify, finishing 3 1/2 lengths behind that rival. On the flip side, Diversify was allowed to have everything his own way on the front end, and Summers still saw enough tenacity in the lane from Mind Your Biscuits to give him another chance over a route of ground.
"I thought after the Whitney, with the rain delay and the break Diversify got, I didn't think (Mind Your Biscuits) ran bad," Summers said. "I like the way that (third-place finisher) Discreet Lover was coming up to him, and he dug back in and gained ground on Diversify and galloped out in front of him. It doesn't make me think he's done at a mile.
"We get to kind of watch what goes on the next couple of weeks and make a decision (on a Breeders' Cup race). But if he's going to run in the Classic, he needs to show us something Saturday. No offense to these other horses, they're nice horses, but he's a three-time grade 1 winner, so if he shows up and distance isn't the problem, he wins the race. If he gets beat, we're not going in the Classic."
Even if Mind Your Biscuits wins Saturday, Summers needs to see him do it in a way that convinces him he has another furlong in his tank. Since returning from Dubai and running second by a whisker in the Met Mile, Summers has been trying to put a deeper reserve into his horse with stamina-building workouts.
"We've changed basically everything since we came back from Dubai," Summers said. "Long, slow gallops, two-mile gallops. His works have gone from :46 and :59 to 1:02 and 1:25. He two-minute licked a mile and a quarter before we left (to come to Churchill), so it's about long slow gallops and finishing at the end.
"When he breezed the other day and worked (five furlongs) in 1:02, he broke off in :13 4/5 and got the last three-eighths in :36 flat, and that's what you need to see. We know how fast he is. Now it's a matter of getting him to stay."
Mind Your Biscuits has been installed as the even-money, morning-line favorite in the eight-horse Lukas Classic field and will break from post 6 with Tyler Gaffalione up.
Distance is of little issue for Honorable Duty, who won three graded stakes in 2017, including the Lukas Classic. The Distorted Humor gelding went off form at the end of last season, which included being pulled up in the Clark Handicap presented by Norton Healthcare (G1), but regrouped to win an allowance race at Churchill May 20 before running second in the June 16 Stephen Foster Handicap (G1).
In terms of intrigue, the expected presence of Toast of New York in the Lukas Classic is a tough one to surpass. The runner-up in the 2014 Breeders' Cup Classic returned from a three-year absence in December, following a stud career that never got off the ground in Qatar.
On Saturday, Toast of New York will be making his first start since being gelded and first outing since finishing last of 12 in the Jan. 27 Pegasus World Cup Invitational Stakes (G1) at Gulfstream Park.
"We're very hopeful we can use this as a prep into the Breeders' Cup," said trainer Jamie Osborne in a video posted on his website. "Obviously, we bit off more than we could chew when we went into the Pegasus. We kind of knew our fate going into that race, because all the way down to the start, he was rather determined to find a girlfriend. His mind really wasn't on the job at all. He's now a gelding, but he's been training really well. I still believe the ability is there. Hopefully, he'll prove to the world he's as good as he once was."
Churchill Downs, Saturday, September 29, 2018, Race 9Entries: Lukas Classic S. (G3)
PP
Horse
Jockey
Wgt
Trainer
M/L
1
1Honorable Duty (KY)
Corey J. Lanerie
121
Brendan P. Walsh
5/2
2
2Remembering Rita (KY)
Alex Birzer
123
Doug L. Anderson
15/1
3
3Rated R Superstar (KY)
Brian Joseph Hernandez, Jr.
123
Kenneth G. McPeek
12/1
4
4Toast of New York (KY)
Julien R. Leparoux
121
Jamie Osborne
15/1
5
5Flowers for Lisa (KY)
Jose C. Ferrer
121
Jorge Navarro
15/1
6
6Mind Your Biscuits (NY)
Tyler Gaffalione
121
Chad Summers
1/1
7
7Term of Art (KY)
Shaun Bridgmohan
121
Brad H. Cox
10/1
8
8Breaking Lucky (ON)
Ricardo Santana, Jr.
121
George Weaver
6/1
