Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Mind Your Biscuits sizzles in workout
ELMONT, N.Y. – Mind Your Biscuits picked up the pace in his preparations for the Breeders’ Cup Sprint by working a sharp half-mile in 46.72 seconds Saturday morning over the Belmont Park main track.
The move, timed in splits of 23.12 and 23.60, was done immediately after the track reopened following the 8:30 a.m. renovation break. Joel Rosario, the colt’s regular rider, was aboard for the breeze. Mind Your Biscuits galloped out five furlongs in 59.65.
The move was the third and most serious for Mind Your Biscuits since he finished sixth, eight lengths behind Drefong, in the Grade 1 Forego at Saratoga on Aug. 26.
“I thought he went well, did it on his own,” trainer Chad Summers said. “We obviously wanted him to get something out of the work, being that he’s not going to have a prep race. I thought he did it how we wanted. I was pleased with how he galloped out. I had him galloping out in 59, 1:12.80, and 1:26.40, and that was just as important as the work itself. He wasn’t under a drive or anything like that. Joel told us he felt like he did before the Belmont Sprint, so that makes us happy.”
Mind Your Biscuits won the Grade 2 Belmont Sprint Championship on July 8. Prior to that, he won the Group 1 Dubai Golden Shaheen. His performance in the Forego was a bit of a headscratcher, though Summers said he had some concerns about the colt’s training prior to that race.
Summers believes Mind Your Biscuits is training better since getting back to Belmont and is hoping that the horse simply didn’t like Saratoga. Mind Your Biscuits will have two more works at Belmont before leaving Oct. 24 and then will have a blowout the week of the Breeders’ Cup.
Practical Joke breezes
Practical Joke, a three-time Grade 1 winner, worked four furlongs in 48.45 seconds Saturday morning over the Belmont Park main track as he continues preparations for the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile on Nov. 3 at Del Mar.
Practical Joke worked in company with the 2-year-old maiden winner Engage, and the pair got their last three furlongs in 35.55 seconds and galloped out an additional eighth of a mile in 12.65. Engage is scheduled to run in the Grade 3, $150,000 Futurity here next Saturday.
After running three times in seven weeks, Practical Joke will come into the Breeders’ Cup off a 69-day break.
“He’s training great. I think freshening him up has turned out to be the right thing to do,” trainer Chad Brown said. “I think the horse is so strong in his works, keeping his fitness well. I’m looking forward to getting to the Breeders’ Cup. I think he’s going to run just fine off a break.”
Brown also worked Paulassilverlining and Carina Mia, his two contenders for the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint. Paulassilverlining, working with the 2-year-old Mask, went a half-mile in 48.03. Carina Mia, working by herself, went a halfmile in 49.19.
For Paulassilverlining, it was her fifth work since her fifth-place finish in the Grade 1 Ballerina on Aug. 26. She had been under consideration for the Gallant Bloom before it was decided to trainer her up to the Breeders’ Cup.
Brown said Paulassilverlining’s performance in the Ballerina may have been impacted by the hard effort needed to win the Honorable Miss four weeks earlier.
“She ran so well in the Honorable Miss, maybe it took a little out of her,” Brown said. “We took the approach bringing her to the Breeders’ Cup fresh, and hopefully she gives us one of her A-plus performances off a freshening.”
For Carina Mia, it was her first breeze since her runner-up finish in the Gallant Bloom.
◗ The New York Racing Association and Yonkers will offer an all-stakes pick four wager next Saturday. The wager will combine the $250,000 Harry Harvey Invitational Trot and the $1 million Yonkers International Trot with the Grade 3, $150,000 Futurity and the $200,000 Pebbles Stakes. Belmont Park will host the wager, which will have a 50-cent minimum and a 24 percent takeout rate.