Gulfstream News & Notes: G1 Winner Mind Your Biscuits Works Toward 2017 Debut

By David Joseph —-

Gulfstream News & Notes

G1 Winner Mind Your Biscuits Works Toward 2017 Debut
Curlin’s Approval to Stretch Out in Royal Delta (G2)
World Cup Under Consideration for Neolithic and Keen Ice

HALLANDALE BEACH, FL – Grade 1 winner Mind Your Biscuits motored through a powerful half-mile work in a bullet 47.75 Friday morning at the Palm Meadows Training Center. It was the 4-year-old’s final workout before making his seasonal debut in the $100,000 Gulfstream Park Sprint (G3) at Gulfstream Park Feb. 25.

Mind Your Biscuits, who won the Malibu (G1) at Santa Anita Dec. 26, will have a new trainer when he runs in the 6 1/2-furling Gulfstream Park Sprint. Chad Summers, who co-owns the New York-bred in a multi-layered partnership that includes his father and brother, J Stables, Head of Plains Partners, and Michael Kisber, has taken over training duties from Robert Falcone Jr.

Summers recently took out his trainer’s license and he expects Mind Your Biscuits, a winner of nearly $800,000, to be his second career starter, following a claiming horse he anticipates running the day before when the Gulfstream Park Sprint is run.

With jockey Joel Rosario aboard, Mind Your Biscuits’ work Friday was the fastest of 27 at the distance. Summers said he clocked Mind Your Biscuits in 1:00 for his five-furlong gallop out time, and caught him in 1:12 4/5 for six furlongs.

“There’s a little bit of a trick with him in that if you want him to breeze fast you put a pair of blinkers on him,” Summers said. “The transformation of him in the afternoons came with the addition of blinkers, and it’s the same when he works in them. He’s not going to work next week, so this will be his last work going into the race and because of that today we wanted to put a little more speed in him and get something out of it.” A son of Posse, Mind Your Biscuits busy and profitable 3-year-old campaign. After running through his New York-bred conditions, the colt became a stakes winner in the Amsterdam (G2) at Saratoga Race Course. After running second in the Gallant Bob (G3) at Parx Racing, Mind Your Biscuits ran in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint (G1), where he finished third, but subsequently was awarded second money upon the disqualification of Masochistic for racing with a prohibited substance.

After the Breeders’ Cup, Mind Your Biscuits remained in California to run in the $300,000 Malibu Stakes for 3-year-olds, which he won by a half-length over Sharp Azteca.

“After the Malibu we gave him a little bit of a breather,” Summers said. “We were in California for an extra week, and then we ended up going to Gulfstream for a week, and then finally settled in at Palm Meadows. He’s a horse that loves his job and loves what he is doing. He’s getting bigger and filling out, and we’re very, very pleased with where we are with him.”

Summers said the timing of the Gulfstream Park Sprint is such that it would allow him and his partners to decide if they wished to bring Mind Your Biscuits to Dubai to run in the $2 million Golden Shaheen (G1) March 25. Last year’s winner of the Gulfstream Park Sprint, X Y Jet, finished second in the Golden Shaheen.

Another option, Summer said, is the $400,000 Carter Handicap (G1) at Aqueduct Racetrack April 8.

“As far as pointing to the Gulfstream race it’s just the perfect spot to start our season,” Summers said. “We’ll use this race as a stepping-stone to our next stop, either Dubai or the Carter. Dubai is one of those things where it’s an event. We’ve never been afraid of the moment and we will never be. We look at something like that as it could be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. We think he will love that track . . . if it were a straightaway we wouldn’t go. But with it around the turn now, and talking to Rosario, who has been there plenty before, he thinks the horse will love that track, and that’s got us excited about it.”

Hurricane Bertie (G3) winner looks to stretch out for next race

Alter’s Racing Stable’s Curlin’s Approval, who became a graded stakes winner in her last start, the $100,00 Hurricane Bertie (G3) at seven furlongs, is being prepared to stretch out in her next start.

The 4-year-old daughter of Curlin is nominated to the $200,00 Royal Delta (G2) at Gulfstream Park Feb. 18 and is likely to make her next start in the 1 1/16-mile race.

Happy Alter, who owns the Marty Wolfson-trained filly, said Curlin’s Approval worked six furlongs in 1:12.31 at Gulfstream Feb. 7 with the Royal Delta in mind. Luis Saez, who rode her to a 2 1/2-length score in the Hurricane Bertie, was aboard for the work.

“I’m aiming for that race,” Alter said Friday morning. “It’s an experiment in stretching out to a mile and a sixteenth. She breezed the other day and went three-quarters to prepare for that race, and she did that in 1:12 by herself, without another horse with her. Now that she is a graded stakes winner and graded stakes placed this race would be another good move for her.”

Curlin’s Approval was bred by Alter out of a mare he bred, raced, and trained, Withmom’sapproval, a daughter of With Approval. The Kentucky-bred Curlin’s Approval has won four of seven career starts, with all her wins coming at Gulfstream Park. She was a most impressive winner of her career debut, a six-furlong maiden-special-weight race in June, over a next-out winner. She also won an allowance race here, as well as the Added Elegance Stakes. Prior to winning the Hurricane Bertie as the odds-on favorite, Curlin’s Approval finished a gutsy second to Eskenformoney, beaten less than a length, in the one-mile Rampart (G3).

Eskenformoney is also nominated to the Royal Delta, named for the brilliant race mare who passed away earlier this week from complications of foaling.

World Cup Under Consideration for Neolithic and Keen Ice

Neolithic and Keen Ice, third and fourth, respectively, in the $12 million Pegasus World Cup Invitational (G1) Jan. 28 at Gulfstream, continue to do well following their effort behind runaway winner Arrogate in the world’s richest race.

The Todd Pletcher-trained stablemates are among 168 horses nominated to the $10 million Dubai World Cup (G1) March 25 at Meydan Racecourse. Other Pegasus horses among the nominees are Arrogate, War Story (fifth), Noble Bird (sixth), Semper Fortis (seventh), Breaking Lucky (eighth) and Eragon (12th).

“They both came out well and they look good,” Pletcher said. “They’ll get a little bit of a break but right now I’d say both are under consideration for the Dubai World Cup. We’ll see.”

The inaugural 1 1/8-mile Pegasus replaced the Donn Handicap on Gulfstream’s stakes schedule, offering a new and lucrative early-season option for older horses, luring California Chrome from the West Coast for one more race before heading off to stud. The two-time Horse of the Year exited his ninth-place finish with swelling in a knee.

Keen Ice ran third behind Arrogate and California Chrome in the Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1) and was second to stablemate Stanford in the Harlan’s Holiday (G3) Dec. 17 at Gulfstream in the last two of three starts since being moved to Pletcher following a winter stay in Dubai. While there, he was eighth to California Chrome in the World Cup.

“It is unusual to have that type of race early in the year,” Pletcher said. “In Keen Ice’s case it was great timing for him because he’d only had two starts after Dubai in 2016. Having an early campaign for him especially with consideration of going back to the World Cup works out well.”

Neolithic, second in the Discovery (G3) in November, was unbeaten in two previous starts at Gulfstream prior to the Pegasus, including a front-running nine-length romp Dec. 14 which convinced Starlight Racing to take a shot in the Pegasus. The lightly raced 4-year-old has two wins, three seconds and a third in eight career starts.

“Neolithic was a one-other-than not too long ago so he’s kind of made big strides in a short period of time,” Pletcher said. “Timing-wise, Dubai works for him as well. I think before his impressive allowance win here we were the only ones that regarded him as having that kind of quality, so I was glad to see him step up and prove he belongs.”

Gulfstream Park is a Stronach Group company, North America’s leading Thoroughbred racetrack owner/operator. The Stronach Group racetracks include Santa Anita Park, Gulfstream Park & Casino, Golden Gate Fields, Portland Meadows, Laurel Park and Pimlico Race Course, home of the world-famous Preakness. The company owns and operates the Palm Meadows Training Center in Florida, and is one of North America’s top race horse breeders through its award-winning Adena Springs operation. The Stronach Group is one of the world’s largest suppliers of pari-mutuel wagering systems, technologies and services. Its companies include AmTote, a global leader in wagering technology; XpressBet, an Internet and telephone account wagering service; and Monarch Content Management, which acts as a simulcast purchase and sales agent of horseracing content for numerous North American racetracks and wagering outlets.