Mind Your Biscuits has fast work in Met Mile prep

ELMONT, N.Y. – It has been six weeks since Mind Your Biscuits did any serious running. On Friday morning he was eager to show his connections that he’s ready to go back into the fray.

Mind Your Biscuits zipped a half-mile in 46.93 seconds over the Belmont Park main track Friday morning as he prepares for a start in the Grade 1, $1.2 million Metropolitan Handicap here June 9, Belmont Stakes Day.

The move was the first for Mind Your Biscuits since his remarkable head victory in the Group 1 Dubai Golden Shaheen on March 31. Mind Your Biscuits, a 5-year-old New York-bred son of Posse, has won that race the last two years.

With Joel Rosario up Friday morning, Mind Your Biscuits was quite eager when he left his accompanying pony at about the 6 1/2-furlong pole. Rosario had Mind Your Biscuits in the middle of the track before guiding him over toward the inside at the half-mile pole.

Mind Your Biscuits went his first quarter in 23.93 seconds, and though he came four wide – as is typical for him in the morning – turning for home, he got his second quarter in 23.00 seconds. Mind Your Biscuits galloped out five furlongs in 59.76 seconds over a track that produced fast times most of the morning.

“He’s been kind of hinting at that for the last couple of days,” trainer Chad Summers said. “The time’s fast, but I think the track’s a little fast, so that played into it a little, but he does it so easy. He’s not even blowing after the work. I couldn’t be any happier with him.”

Following his victory in the Golden Shaheen, Mind Your Biscuits remained in Dubai for an additional nine days before shipping back to the U.S. on April 9. After clearing quarantine in Chicago, Mind Your Biscuits then spent about two weeks at the Fair Hill training center in Maryland, where he took advantage of that facility having a hyperbaric chamber.

Mind Your Biscuits shipped to Belmont on April 22.

Summers said that remaining in Dubai for additional time after the race “was huge.”

“I think that’s going to make the difference between being able to run in the race on Belmont Stakes Day and not,” he said. “Last year he lost 100 pounds.”

Summer said he plans to keep Mind Your Biscuits on a Friday work schedule leading up to the Met Mile.