Mind Your Biscuits overcomes track bias to repeat in Dubai Golden Shaheen

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – Chad Summers, the trainer and co-owner of Mind Your Biscuits, was asked just before the Group 1, $2 million Dubai Golden Shaheen if his horse was as good Saturday night as he’d been a year ago, when Mind Your Biscuits won the Shaheen by three lengths.

“He’s better,” Summers said.

Was that possible? Mind Your Biscuits had lost four races in a row. He had struggled last summer at Saratoga, and while he’d been second to Sharp Azteca in the Cigar Mile to end his 2017 campaign, he’d been beaten more than five lengths. Mind Your Biscuits even lost an allowance race Feb. 9 at Gulfstream Park while prepping for the Shaheen.

Forget all that. Maybe Mind Your Biscuits wasn’t better, but he was at least as good.

Last of eight around the turn and still many lengths behind the leader at the top of the Meydan homestretch, Mind Your Biscuits flew home under Joel Rosario and beat X Y Jet by a head. Another three-quarters of a length back was Roy H, the champion sprinter last year in the U.S. who saw his three-race winning streak snapped.

Mind Your Biscuits ($10) ran 1,200 meters, or about six furlongs, in 1:10.12, the third Meydan dirt-track record on the card.

Not only did Mind Your Biscuits manage to get up, he did so after breaking poorly from post 1 and rallying wide on a track that in three dirt races earlier Saturday appeared to favor speed. Did Summers fear the apparent bias as post time for the Shaheen approached? “Yeah, big time,” he said.

But Mind Your Biscuits burst a big hole in the bias. Already last a few strides out of the gate, Rosario guided him to the outside to avoid the worst of the notorious Meydan kickback. Up front, the local horse Jordan Sport was putting on a spectacular speed display, crossing over from an outside post to outrun the wickedly fast X Y Jet for the lead. Emisael Jaramillo switched X Y Jet outside, and the pace battle was on, the leaders whipping down the backstretch and into the turn.

Roy H, who got away from the gate even worse than Mind Your Biscuits, stalked the pace on the outside and ranged up to engage the leaders entering the stretch. X Y Jet put away Jordan Sport after straightening for home, and as Roy H failed to gain much on the leader, X Y Jet briefly looked like a winner.

“Once he opened up, I’m like, ‘I’m gone,’ ” said trainer Jorge Navarro.

No sooner had the thought crossed his mind than Navarro saw Mind Your Biscuits descending. Rosario said he had no choice but to be patient after the poor start, confident his horse would deliver the same kick that won them the 2017 Shaheen. Mind Your Biscuits finally got out of last midway around the turn, really started coming to the front-runners after turning for home, and ran at X Y Jet until he caught him a couple strides before the finish.

It was a tough beat for X Y Jet and Navarro, made more so because the same thing had happened in the 2016 Shaheen, where X Y Jet was beaten a neck by Muarrab. Still, X Y Jet has been through two knee surgeries since that race and has still come back strong.

“You can’t ask for more from him,” Navarro said.

Kent Desormeaux, Roy H’s jockey, told trainer Peter Miller it was as if Roy H’s back leg locked as he tried to push off at the start.

“He stumbled bad behind,” Desormeaux said. “He was eight lengths back after one jump. He made up five in a quarter of a mile, and I elected to sit chilly there to wait for the run for the wire. Then, I’m sure accidentally, he got spanked across the head by a neighbor jockey. It was just too much for him to overcome.”

Mind Your Biscuits overcame everything. A 5-year-old horse owned by a partnership, Mind Your Biscuits ran his record to 7-8-3 from 20 starts and bumped his earnings above $3.7 million while becoming the first horse since Caller One in 2002 to win consecutive Shaheens.

“He’s an unbelievable horse, an amazing animal,” said Summers.

Summers was talking earlier this week about a possible run in the Grade 1, $1 million Metropolitan Handicap on the Belmont Stakes card. And why not? Mind Your Biscuits just might be better than ever.