Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Top New York-bred Mind Your Biscuits retired at age 5
Mind Your Biscuits, winner of the last two editions of the Group 1 Golden Shaheen on Dubai World Cup Day, was retired Wednesday morning by trainer Chad Summers after he didn’t gallop to expectations at Belmont Park.
Summers had been considering a final career start for Mind Your Biscuits – either the Grade 1 Cigar Mile or the Grade 1 Clark – but the 5-year-old has been slow to recover from his 11th-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Classic.
“To go to a race like the Cigar Mile or the Clark you have to be kicking the barn down, and he just isn’t,” Summers said. “We were going to gallop him today and breeze tomorrow, but when we broke him off this morning, he just went through the motions.”
Mind Your Biscuits concludes his career with an 8-10-3 record from 25 starts and earnings of more than $4.27 million over four seasons of competition. In addition to the about six-furlong Golden Shaheen, his major wins include the Grade 2 Belmont Sprint Championship, Grade 1 Malibu, and Grade 2 Amsterdam.
The son of Posse is the highest earning New York-bred of all time and the state’s two-time reigning horse of the year.
In the near future, Mind Your Biscuits will be sent to Shadai Farm in Japan to stand at stud. Shadai bought into Mind Your Biscuits in May and takes complete ownership now that he is retired.
“I’m going to let him down here and then we’ll send him to Darby Dan Farm in Kentucky for a few weeks,” Summers said. “From there, he will go on to Japan.”
Originally a sprinter, Mind Your Biscuits successfully stretched out in distance this season. He finished second by a nose to Bee Jersey in the Grade 1 Met Mile and was second to Diversify in the Grade 1 Whitney. He won the 1 1/8-mile Lukas Classic at Churchill Downs in September prior to the Breeders’ Cup Classic.
The Classic was a rare off-race for Mind your Biscuits. He was beaten 30 lengths under jockey Tyler Gaffalione.
“We think he had a bad reaction to the Lasix,” Summers said. “After it was administered, he just got kind of quiet. Then he broke sluggish, and Tyler said he never picked up the bit.
“He drank 2 1/2 buckets of water after the race and the blood we took showed he was dehydrated. It’s too bad he has to go out that way, but it doesn’t take away from the brilliance he showed during his career.”
Winter weather comes early
The nine-race Friday card at Aqueduct is topped by a first-level New York-bred optional-claiming race for fillies and mares and includes a first-level allowance turf sprint and four maiden races. The trouble is, autumn has suddenly started to look like the beginning of an early winter and four of the day’s races are scheduled for turf.
Aqueduct was off the grass Wednesday, and the first hard freeze of the season was expected Thursday morning. There is the possibility of sleet and ice Thursday afternoon with rain continuing into Friday morning.
The eighth-race optional claimer for statebreds will be run at a mile over the main track. Puffery, Out of Orbit, and Peril are the main players in the eighthorse field. Peril has the most upside and will be the longest price of the three.
Puffery, trained by Mark Hennig, has finished third three times and second once in her last four starts versus allowance company. The daughter of Flatter has put together a 10-1-2-4 record but has a good chance to pad her résumé in this easier spot.
Out of Orbit comes into the race with a similar record of 12-13-3 and second- or third-place finishes in five of her last six for Phil Serpe.
Peril rallied from far back to win a statebred maiden race over turf at Belmont in June and returned in July to finish third over yielding ground against allowance rivals.
Peril didn’t breeze for six weeks after that race but has a steady work tab since Sept. 9. This will be her dirt debut.
The most likely winner on the card is Domain in race 3. Shug McGaughey drops the 3-year-old gelded son of Orb from straight maiden company into a $40,000 maiden claimer. He will be singled on many early pick four and pick five tickets.