X Y Jet, Mind Your Biscuits could meet before Dubai

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – X Y Jet continues to give every indication he’s cycled back to his peak form of two years ago after drawing off to a convincing 5 1/2-length victory in Saturday’s Sunshine Millions Sprint.

The performance impressed just about everyone in the crowd, including trainer Chad Summers, who has been keeping a close eye on a horse he believes could be the chief competition for his top sprinter Mind Your Biscuits in the Dubai Golden Shaheen on March 31.

X Y Jet earned a 99 Beyer Speed Figure in the Sunshine Millions Sprint, his second win on the comeback trail from the third in a series of knee surgeries that kept him sidelined 13 months prior to his half-length triumph in the Grade 3 Mr. Prospector on Dec. 23. Trainer Jorge Navarro said that if all goes well, X Y Jet would likely have one more start before returning to Dubai for the Golden Shaheen. X Y Jet dropped a heartbreaking neck decision to Muarrab in the 2016 Golden Shaheen.

“I always thought he was one of the best sprinters [in the world] two years ago,” said Navarro. “Hopefully he comes back clean. After three knee surgeries, you never know what to expect. But so far he hasn’t taken a bad step. I was able to work him twice [since the Mr. Prospector], which was a big score. The last time I had him, I wasn’t even able to work him between races.”

Mind Your Biscuits won the 2017 Golden Shaheen, and Summers has been making plans to defend the title ever since his star finished a distant second behind Sharp Azteca in the Grade 1 Cigar Mile on Dec. 2. Mind Your Biscuits ran third, beaten three lengths by Roy H, four weeks earlier in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint.

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Mind Your Biscuits worked Friday for just the second time since the Cigar Mile, covering four furlongs in 47.40 with Irad Ortiz Jr. aboard at Palm Meadows.

“He’s doing super,” said Summers. “He went in 47 and 2, galloped out in 59 and 3, and Irad told me afterwards he felt like he’d gone in 49. Right now, I’m aiming for the General George at Laurel for his first start of the year. I like the seven furlongs and the timing is good. It gives us six weeks until Dubai instead of four like we had last year, when we prepped him for the race in the Gulfstream Park Sprint. Although, naturally, I’m keeping a close eye on the situation up there to see how everything plays out.”

Summers was referring to the quarantine in place at Laurel due to a horse on the grounds recently having tested positive for the equine herpesvirus. If Mind Your Biscuits cannot get to Maryland for the Feb. 17 General George, it could set up an earlier-than-expected confrontation with X Y Jet in the Gulfstream Park Sprint on March 3.

“If we have to wait until [March 3,] we will,” said Summers. “But he’s bigger, stronger and faster than last year, and he’s doing so well I’m afraid I might not be able to keep him on the ground until then.”