Top New York-bred Mind Your Biscuits retired

Mind Your Biscuits, winner of the last two editions of the Group 1 Golden Shaheen on Dubai World Cup Day, was retired Wednesday morning by trainer Chad Summers after he didn’t gallop to expectations at Belmont Park.

Summers had been considering a final career start for Mind Your Biscuits – either the Grade 1 Cigar Mile or the Grade 1 Clark – but the 5-year-old has been slow to recover from his 11th-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Classic.

“To go to a race like the Cigar Mile or the Clark you have to be kicking the barn down, and he just isn’t,” Summers said. “We were going to gallop him today and breeze tomorrow, but when we broke him off this morning, he just went through the motions.”

Mind Your Biscuits concludes his career with an 8-10-3 record from 25 starts and earnings of more than $4.27 million over four seasons of competition. In addition to the about six-furlong Golden Shaheen, his major wins include the Grade 2 Belmont Sprint Championship, Grade 1 Malibu, and Grade 2 Amsterdam.

The son of Posse is the highest earning New York-bred of all time and the state’s two-time reigning horse of the year.

In the near future, Mind Your Biscuits will be sent to Shadai Farm in Japan to stand at stud. Shadai bought into Mind Your Biscuits in May and takes complete ownership now that he is retired.

“I’m going to let him down here and then we’ll send him to Darby Dan Farm in Kentucky for a few weeks,” Summers said. “From there, he will go on to Japan.”

Originally a sprinter, Mind Your Biscuits successfully stretched out in distance this season. He finished second by a nose to Bee Jersey in the Grade 1 Met Mile and was second to Diversify in the Grade 1 Whitney. He won the 1 1/8-mile Lukas Classic at Churchill Downs in September prior to the Breeders’ Cup Classic.

The Classic was a rare off-race for Mind your Biscuits. He was beaten 30 lengths under jockey Tyler Gaffalione.

“We think he had a bad reaction to the Lasix,” Summers said. “After it was administered, he just got kind of quiet. Then he broke sluggish, and Tyler said he never picked up the bit.

“He drank 2 1/2 buckets of water after the race and the blood we took showed he was dehydrated. It’s too bad he has to go out that way, but it doesn’t take away from the brilliance he showed during his career.”