Mind Your Biscuits drills 7 furlongs ahead of G1 Whitney
Two-time New York-bred Horse of the Year Mind Your Biscuits moved one step closer Friday morning to the Grade 1, $1.2 million Whitney for older horses at 1 1/8 miles on August 4 with a seven-furlong breeze before galloping out a mile over Saratoga’s main track.
With rider Joel Rosario aboard, the 5-year-old cruised through splits of 12 3/5 seconds, 25 3/5, 38 flat, 50 1/5, 1:01 4/5, finishing the move in 1:26.41. NYRA clockers caught the mile gallop-out in 1:39 4/5.
“We’re happy with it,” trainer Chad Summers said. “I think it was necessary to make sure he can get the two turns. I think that it showed he finished well down the lane and that’s what we wanted to see. More than likely, he’ll work one more time about a half-mile. Let’s see how he comes out of this one.”
This was the second workout for Mind Your Biscuits since being beaten a nose by Bee Jersey in the Grade 1 Runhappy Metropolitan Handicap as part of the Belmont Stakes undercard on June 9.
“I thought it was great,” Summers said about his horse’s performance in the race. “We looked at what the pace breakdown was going to be. We were concerned that Bee Jersey would get loose on the lead. Obviously, we knew we had our work cut out for us and we had to give four pounds.”
Summers believes his multiple Grade 1 winner, including the Dubai Golden Shaheen twice, can handle the longer distance for the Whitney.
“He has had a super week since coming up here to Saratoga,” Summers said. “He came out of the Met Mile well. He is showing all of the signs that he is hitting on a career best race.”
Grade 3 winner Morticia looks to repeat Spa success in $200,000 Caress
G. Watts Humphrey Jr.’s Grade 3 winner Morticia, who capped a three-race win streak last year in the Coronation Cup Stakes at Saratoga, will go after her seventh career stakes win and eighth overall in Monday’s $200,000 Caress.
A total of 13 fillies and mares 3-and-up were entered for the Caress, set for 5 ½ furlongs over the Mellon turf course. Trained by Rusty Arnold, who co-bred the filly with Humphrey, Morticia drew post position 2 with regular rider Jose Lezcano.
“I was looking at it this morning. This is going to be some kind of race,” Arnold said. “There just aren’t that many opportunities for these fillies to run for that kind of money, and they’re all here. They all showed up.”
After going six-for-eight in 2017 including a seasonending victory in the Grade 3 Buffalo Trace Franklin County in October, Morticia went winless in her first three starts this year before breaking through in the Penn Ladies Dash June 2 at Penn National last out. She was second in the Captiva Island in March at Gulfstream Park to kick off her 4-year-old campaign, then ran behind Caress rival Triple Chelsea in successive stakes.
“It was nice to get her back in the winner’s circle last time because she had finished last year on a winning note,” Arnold said. “We brought her back this year and she got beat, but ran a great race. She ran great again at Keeneland but it was just a tough race. Her and Lady Aurelia hooked up and we probably set it up for [Triple Chelsea]. That filly is really, really good right now. She’s just hard to beat. We got a little relief last time and got a win out of it to hopefully get back on track.”
Always in awe of her raw talent, Arnold has been impressed with the way Morticia has continued to develop into her 4-year-old year. The daughter of Twirling Candy has now won at six different tracks, and a victory Monday would only be the second time over the same surface, having broken her maiden and earned her first stakes victory last winter at Gulfstream.