Sprint to have familiar cast

The venue may be different, but the lineup could have a very familiar look when the field for the Breeders’ Cup Sprint assembles at Churchill Downs on Nov. 3.

There is a good possibility that the first three finishers from last year’s Sprint at Del Mar – Roy H, Imperial Hint, and Mind Your Biscuits – and four of the top five, including Ransom the Moon, could meet again in this year’s edition of the six-furlong event. The biggest question among that group is the status of Mind Your Biscuits, who’ll have his final Breeders’ Cup prep on Saturday in the nine-furlong Lukas Classic at Churchill Downs.

Trainer Chad Summers continues to keep his Breeders’ Cup options open, with the Sprint, Dirt Mile, and Classic all still on the table pending Mind Your Biscuits’s performance on Saturday. Mind Your Biscuits has finished third in the past two renewals of the Sprint, beaten just more than a length by Drefong at Santa Anita in 2016 and two lengths by Roy H just down the coast last year at Del Mar.

“We’ll know more about what we’re doing this time next week,” said Summers. “Right now, I’d say we’re 33 1/3 percent for all three, and I’m definitely not going to commit to anything until after the race on Saturday.”

Summers said part of his decision regarding Mind Your Biscuits’s status for the Sprint will be based on what happens in preps like Saturday’s Grade 1 Vosburgh at Belmont Park, along with the Grade 2 Phoenix at Keeneland and the Santa Anita Sprint Championship the following week.

“I like the fact they raised the purse $500,000 for the Sprint this year as well as having a longer stretch for him to work with at Churchill Downs than he had at Del Mar last year, when the race was decided over what looked like a biased racetrack,” said Summers. “On the negative side is that I believe Imperial Hint is a better horse now than he was going into the race last year since he isn’t a need-the-lead type anymore.”

Imperial Hint, who led through much of the stretch before dropping a one-length decision to Roy H in the 2017 Sprint, will be heavily favored to extend his winning streak to three in the Vosburgh. Imperial Hint became a Grade 1 winner with his impressive victory in the Alfred G. Vanderbilt this summer at Saratoga.

Roy H has won once in three starts this season, having dropped decisions to both Mind Your Biscuits in the Dubai Golden Shaheen and, most recently, to Ransom the Moon in the Grade 1 Bing Crosby. He and Ransom the Moon are expected to renew acquaintances a week from Saturday in the Santa Anita Sprint Championship, a race Roy H won a year ago as a stepping-stone to the Breeders’ Cup.

Firenze Fire and Switzerland likely punched their tickets to the Sprint by virtue of their victories last weekend in the Grade 3 Gallant Bob at Parx and the De Francis Dash at Laurel Park. Another Sprint candidate, X Y Jet, missed what was to have been his final Breeders’ Cup prep when forced to pass on the De Francis due to a “minor injury,” according to his connections.