Mind Your Biscuits goes for the money

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – It is his immense respect for the horses in the sprint division as much as a desire to try his horse around two turns that has trainer Chad Summers excited to run Mind Your Biscuits in Saturday’s Grade 1, $1.2 million Whitney Stakes at Saratoga.

“I feel like the older [route] division is a softer division right now,” Summers said Monday. “Do you want to run against Imperial Hint for $350,000 or run against these horses for $1.2 million? I want to take a shot at $1.2 million against these horses.”

Summers pointed to the results of last weekend’s Grade 1 sprints around the country as further evidence that he is comfortable with his decision to try the Whitney, which will be Mind Your Biscuits’s first try around two turns and 1 1/8 miles.

Mind Your Biscuits is a multiple graded stakes-winning sprinter.

Imperial Hint, who finished two lengths in front of Mind Your Biscuits in last year’s Breeders’ Cup Sprint, rolled to a 3 3/4-length victory in Saturday’s Grade 1, $350,000 Alfred G. Vanderbilt at Saratoga, earning a 108 Beyer Speed Figure.

Ransom the Moon, who finished fifth in the Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap – a race in which Mind Your Biscuits finished second – won the Grade 1 Bing Crosby on Saturday at Del Mar. Warrior’s Club, ninth in the Met Mile, ran second in the Vanderbilt.

“I think the horses we’ve run against flatter our form,” Summers said.

In the Whitney, Mind Your Biscuits will be facing older males who are trying to find their way in the division. Backyard Heaven, an impressive winner of the Alysheba, wilted in the heat at Churchill in the Grade 1 Stephen Foster. Tapwrit has not won since he took the 2017 Belmont Stakes. Good Samaritan has just one victory since he won last year’s Grade 2 Jim Dandy. McCraken, Dalmore, and Discreet Lover are also pointing to the Whitney.

Diversify, the Suburban winner, was under consideration as of Monday following a strong workout Sunday at Saratoga.

Trainer Rick Violette had to make a decision by Tuesday, when entries were due. A post position draw ceremony was to be held Tuesday night at Sperry’s, a downtown Saratoga Springs restaurant.

“If Diversify is not in the race we might be the morning-line favorite,” Summers said. “And it opens up the doors for the Breeders’ Cup, where you have three options.”

Summers already has the Sprint and the Dirt Mile as Breeders’ Cup options. A good performance in the Whitney could make the Classic an option as well.

“I know people think I’m crazy, but I think he’s going to be better going two turns than one,” Summers said.

Options for Imperial Hint

Trainer Luis Carvajal said he was “still on Cloud Nine” Sunday morning, one day after Imperial Hint gave him, owner Raymond Mamone, and the horse himself their first Grade 1 victory in Saturday’s $350,000 Alfred G. Vanderbilt Stakes at Saratoga.

Imperial Hint returned to Parx Racing, where he is based. Carvajal said Imperial Hint would likely have one more start before the Breeders’ Cup Sprint on Nov. 3 at Churchill Downs. Since Carvajal wants to keep Imperial Hint at six furlongs, the two likely options for him are the Grade 3, $250,000 Frank J. De Francis Memorial Dash at Laurel on Sept. 15 or the Grade 1, $350,000 Vosburgh at Belmont Park on Sept. 29.

Carvajal said the timing of the De Francis is appealing because it will give him seven weeks between each of his next two starts. Imperial Hint won the Vanderbilt 50 days after he won the Grade 2 True North at Belmont Park.

However, the Vosburgh is a Grade 1 and offers a fees-paid berth in the Sprint as part of the Breeders’ Cup Win and You’re In program.

“I’ll talk it over with Mr. Mamone, and then I’ll talk it over with Imperial Hint and see what he has to say about it,” Carvajal said. “He’ll have the final say.”

Promises Fulfilled to Jerkens

Promises Fulfilled is headed to the Grade 1, $500,000 H. Allen Jerkens Stakes following his dominant 3 1/4-length victory over Engage in Saturday’s Grade 3, $200,000 Amsterdam Stakes.

Promises Fulfilled avoided a speed duel with Strike Power, took over turning for home and won with authority despite drifting in a bit in midstretch. He covered 6 1/2 furlongs in 1:15.18 and earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 108.

“He’s a good horse,” trainer Dale Romans said. “He was right there in 43 and 4, ran three-quarters faster than they did in the Vanderbilt and kept on going.”

Romans said he could run three in the Jerkens, run at seven furlongs. Seven Trumpets, beaten nine lengths when second to the Jerkens-bound Firenze Fire in the Grade 3 Dwyer at Belmont, and Cove Blue, a first-level allowance winner at Churchill Downs on May 28, are also pointing that way.