Lukas Classic a litmus test for Mind Your Biscuits

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – It’s a dress rehearsal in more ways than one. Churchill Downs fans – they’re pretty good at this sort of thing already, y’know – will have an opportunity Saturday to practice their partying ahead of the 35th Breeders’ Cup in five weeks, just as potential Breeders’ Cup starters will be out for a jaunt under the lights.

A Downs After Dark card featuring four stakes, including two likely to produce Breeders’ Cup runners, is set for Saturday night amid a perfect early-autumn forecast. The highlight is the Grade 3, $200,000 Lukas Classic, a 1 1/8-mile race that will serve as the final BC prep for Mind Your Biscuits, whose $4.1 million bankroll is the most ever for a New York-bred. Trainer Chad Summers will use the Lukas to gauge whether Mind Your Biscuits will next proceed to the BC Classic, Dirt Mile, or Sprint, all to be run here on Nov. 3.

Several of his seven challengers are being given a fair chance at an upset, although if Mind Your Biscuits runs back to his best races, they’re all in trouble. Aside from victories in back-to-back renewals of the Dubai Golden Shaheen, the 5-year-old son of Posse has been the runner-up in three Grade 1 races in New York within the last year – the Cigar Mile, Met Mile, and Whitney – with each effort equating to a Beyer Speed Figure of 104 or better.

“I’ve said all along that this horse will be just as good [in longer races] as he’s been sprinting,” said Summers.

Mind Your Biscuits arrived here Sept. 13 and has had one breeze while otherwise being sent through routine early-morning gallops.

“He likes this track, gets over it well,” said Summers. “Obviously he’ll have to show that in the race, but I’m confident he will.”

Joel Rosario has ridden Mind Your Biscuits in his last three races, but with Rosario riding Accelerate in the Awesome Again on Saturday at Santa Anita, Summers has called on Tyler Gaffalione to be aboard Mind Your Biscuits when they break from post 6. Gaffalione was in from his Florida base for the Sept. 21 breeze.

“He’s getting stronger,” said Gaffalione. “He’s such a class horse.”

Honorable Duty (post 1, Corey Lanerie) won the 2017 Lukas as an odds-on favorite, and is the likely second choice this time. The 6-year-old gelding most recently was second behind Pavel in the June 16 Stephen Foster – last year he finished second in that race to Gun Runner – and trainer Brendan Walsh is hoping history repeats itself.

“We did what we did last year and gave him the summer off after the Stephen Foster,” said Walsh. “He’s ready. We just have to get lucky.”

Walsh has not ruled out possibly entering Honorable Duty in the BC Classic, but said the gelding would have to “run off the screen” for that to happen.

Other contenders for the Lukas, which is run under allowance conditions, include Rated R Superstar (post 3, Brian Hernandez Jr.), winner of the Ben Ali at Keeneland in April, and Flowers for Lisa (post 5, Jose Ferrer), a winner in 3 of his last 4, all for Jorge Navarro.

The rest of the field is Remembering Rita (post 2, Alex Birzer), Toast of New York (post 4, Julien Leparoux), Term of Art (post 7, Shaun Bridgmohan), and Breaking Lucky (post 8, Ricardo Santana Jr.).

Toast of New York, the runner-up behind Bayern in the 2014 BC Classic at Santa Anita, is the obvious wild card of the group. The 7-year-old has been gelded in the hopes of jump-starting a racing career that followed a failed period at stud. He arrived here Tuesday after clearing quarantine following an overseas weekend flight from England.

“We’re exceptionally happy with how he’s going now,” trainer Jamie Osborne told the Racing Post earlier this month following a serious work at Lingfield.

Running back in the Classic is an option “if he shows he’s as good as he used to be,” Osborne said.

The Lukas Classic goes as the ninth of 11 races on Saturday. First post is 6 p.m. Eastern, with the Lukas set for 10:11. General admission is $10, with many fans expected to arrive straight from the Florida State-Louisville football game at nearby Cardinal Stadium. TVG will have full coverage of the entire card on its main channel.

The Lukas Classic was inaugurated in 2013, the first year Churchill began conducting a September meet after taking over dates traditionally held by Turfway Park. The race honors the active Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas, who will be on hand to present the winner’s trophy after saddling Warrior’s Club for the other potential Breeders’ Cup prep here Saturday night, the Grade 3 Ack Ack (race 8).

The other stakes are the $100,000 Jefferson Cup (race 7) for 3-year-olds on turf and the $100,000 President of the United Arab Emirates (race 10), a Grade 1 event for Arabians. Certain multi-race sequences, including the Single 6 (races 4-9), have been altered so as not to include the Arabian race.

Sunday is closing day of the 11-day September meet, with the Kentucky circuit going dark for four days before Keeneland opens its 17-day fall meet on Friday, Oct. 5.