Mind Your Biscuits, One Liner clash in allowance

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Todd Pletcher took the positive approach when asked about catching no less an opponent than Mind Your Biscuits when he brings his undefeated One Liner back from a nearly yearlong layoff in Friday’s outstanding $53,000 allowance feature at Gulfstream Park.

“I wasn’t excited to see Mind Your Biscuits in the race when the overnight came out,” said Pletcher. “But then again, they might not have been too excited to see One Liner in there, either.”

Mind Your Biscuits and One Liner top a competitive field of five horses going seven furlongs in a main event that could serve as a prep for the Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Sprint on March 3.

One Liner gained a prominent position on the Kentucky Derby trail by drawing away to a 3 1/2-length victory in the Grade 3 Southwest last February at Oaklawn Park, the third win in as many starts for the son of Into Mischief who also had won an allowance race locally four weeks prior. But after not training up to expectations ahead of the Arkansas Derby, One Liner went to the sidelines for the remainder of his 3-year-old campaign.

“We just had trouble getting him back on track after the Southwest,” Pletcher said. “He just never seemed to recapture the form he had at that time, so we decided to send him home for a break, and as happens sometimes, short breaks turn into long ones for one reason or another. He had a little abscess down here that also delayed him for a while. We originally thought we might make the Fred Hooper, but felt like he came up just a work or two short. This was the next place to bring him back. I saw Mind Your Biscuits had been working, but I never really thought he’d show up in here.”

Pletcher said One Liner has trained forwardly for his return.

“I expect him to run well off the bench, like he’s normally done, although obviously it’s a tall order to run against an experienced and talented horse like Mind Your Biscuits,” he said.

Mind Your Biscuits most recently finished a distant second to Sharp Azteca in the Grade 1 Cigar Mile to conclude a stellar 2017 campaign in which he won the Dubai Golden Shaheen and Grade 2 Belmont Sprint and was third in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint. Trainer Chad Summers said he’s using Friday’s main event as a prep for a return trip to Dubai for the Golden Shaheen.

“There’s only five in the race, but it’s a deep field, and we’ll have to have our running shoes on,” said Summers. “And I welcome the challenge of going up against a horse like One Liner. Biscuits has only had four breezes since his last start, but his last work was terrific and indicates he’s done enough. The only question would be his fitness coming off a two-month layoff, although the horse it looks like we have to beat hasn’t run in 11 months.”

Summers said he expects Mind Your Biscuits to sit just off the pace and preferably closer than he did when he rallied for second to Unified in the 2017 Gulfstream Park Sprint, his final prep for Dubai. The odds-on favorite, Mind Your Biscuits came from seven lengths back early in that race and missed by a neck.

“This should be a good gauge to tell us where we are with him right now and gives us the option to come back in the Gulfstream Park Sprint if I feel we need another race before Dubai,” Summers said.

Pletcher will send out a second contender in the race, the Chilean multiple Group 1 winner Big Daddy, who’ll break from the rail while making his second U.S. start. Conquest Windycity and Berliner complete the field.

Big Daddy finished fourth, beaten four lengths, in a one-mile optional claimer at Belmont Park last October.

“Big Daddy was very accomplished in South America,” said Pletcher. “I was a little disappointed with his first race back. We did a little throat procedure after the race, and he’s been training well since. The 1 hole is always tough position to be in going seven-eighths. Hopefully, this will be a step towards bigger things down the road.”