Mind Your Biscuits drills six furlongs for Breeders' Cup

As decision time looms for Mind Your Biscuits, he continues to work toward the Breeders’ Cup at host track Churchill Downs, going six furlongs in 1:15 on Friday.

Mind Your Biscuits, trained by Chad Summers, worked in company with Imperative, a multiple graded stakes winner trained by Anthony Quartarolo. With Mind Your Biscuits on the outside, the duo turned in splits of 13.40 seconds, 26.60, 39.40, and 51.80. They galloped out seven furlongs in 1:28.

Mind Your Biscuits, a multiple Grade/Group 1 winner at six and seven furlongs, won the Grade 3 Lukas Classic going 1 1/8 miles last month at Churchill Downs in his most recent start. He is a candidate for the Breeders’ Cup Classic, Sprint, or Dirt Mile, all Nov. 3. He may pre-enter two races at the deadline Monday, but must choose his spot by the final entry deadline and draw day on Oct. 29.

“We’re just keeping our options open, as we have been all year,” Summers said. “It was a really strong breeze, and he’s doing great here at Churchill. The work itself may have started a bit too slow, but I think visually it was good. The pre-entry deadline is Monday, and we’ll go from there. We saw in the Lukas Classic he can stretch out and go long. We’ll just see what happens.”

The New York-bred Mind Your Biscuits, a 5-year-old son of Posse, is slated to stand at Shadai Farm in Japan in 2019.

Mind Your Biscuits shared the work tab with potential Breeders’ Cup foes on Friday at Churchill Downs. Dubai World Cup winner Thunder Snow, who is targeting the Classic after finishing second in the Jockey Club Gold Cup, worked a mile in 1:42.20, with the final five furlongs coming in 1:02.60. Thunder Snow has returned to Churchill Downs, where he was pulled up early in the 2017 Kentucky Derby after bucking while leaving the starting gate.

Fellow Classic candidate Seeking the Soul, a multiple graded stakes winner at Churchill, went five furlongs in 1:01.

Grade 1 winner Whitmore, working with Petrov, went a sharp four furlongs in 47 seconds flat before galloping out five furlongs in 1:00.60. Whitmore, who finished second by a head in the Phoenix Stakes at Keeneland last out, will run in either the Sprint or Dirt Mile.

Canadian classic winner Wonder Gadot, most recently third in the Cotillion Stakes behind divisional rivals Monomoy Girl and Midnight Bisou, worked five furlongs in a minute flat at Churchill as she prepares for a rematch in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff.

Down the highway at Keeneland, Spinster Stakes winner Blue Prize also breezed for the Distaff, going a half in 47.20 with Joe Bravo in the irons. The mare finished her work just behind a duo working from another barn and galloped out past those two.

“It was a maintenance work, and it was a little bit faster than I would have liked, but she got that target . . . in front that we weren’t expecting,” trainer Ignacio Correas said. “Other than that, I wanted to see what she did with Joe coming home. I think she did everything right. We’re happy.”

Bravo was aboard Blue Prize, a three-time graded stakes winner at Churchill Downs, for the first time in the Spinster, in which the mare veered out down the stretch. Bravo will retain the mount in the Distaff.

“I wanted him to get to know her a little bit better,” Correas said. “Caught everybody by surprise what she did last time. We don’t really have an explanation for that.”

In other Distaff news out of Keeneland, trainer Ken McPeek said that Alabama Stakes winner Eskimo Kisses, who failed to fire when seventh in the Spinster, would pass on the Distaff.

McPeek still will be represented at the Breeders’ Cup by a Grade 1-winning filly in Alcibiades winner and Juvenile Fillies candidate Restless Rider, who worked five furlongs in company with Princesa Carolina in 1:01.80. Princesa Carolina is targeting the BC Juvenile Fillies Turf.

In other Breeders’ Cup works at Keeneland, Knicks Go, the $142 upset winner of the Breeders’ Futurity, went five furlongs in 59.20 ahead of the Juvenile for trainer Ben Colebrook. Strike Silver, who earned a berth in the Juvenile Turf Sprint with his victory in the Indian Summer, and Mark Casse-trained stablemate War of Will, pointing to the Juvenile Turf, went a half in 47.20. All five 2-year-old races at the Breeders’ Cup are on Nov. 2.