'Biscuits' a True Overachiever

Managing a Thoroughbred is rarely straight-forward. Sure, you set some goals and devise a strategy to achieve those objectives, but more frequently than not, you have to dip into the bag for plans B, C and sometimes D. For the connections of Mind Your Biscuits (Posse), including Chad Summers, things really could not have gone much better over the last 16 months, and it all came together in the best possible way for the bloodstock agent/part-owner and his partners in Monday's GI Malibu S. at Santa Anita.

A $47,000 purchase by Machmer Hall out of the 2014 Keeneland January Sale, the son of the Toccet mare Jazzmane was consigned by Select Sales to that year's Fasig-Tipton New York-Bred Sale at Saratoga, but was led out unsold. Summers, along with his father, his brother and Susan Montanye's SBM Sales privately purchased the 50% stake in the horse previously owned by Marne Fauber's Imagine Thoroughbreds, while Machmer Hall stayed in for their half-interest.

The March foal was prepared for the 2015 OBS April Sale, but Mother Nature played a role in what came next for the colt catalogued as hip 1186.

“The day he breezed, it was the hottest day of the previews, and on the hot days, that track down there [at OBS] can heat up some,” Summers explained. “That day at that time, the times were slow. If you watched the breeze, it was a really nice video and I had a lot of New York trainers look at him and they all seemed to like him.

He continued, “But between the time [:10 3/5] and getting lost in the shuffle a bit being like 60 hips from the end of a five-day sale actually ended up working to our benefit. We were always going to protect him for a lot more than the $47,000 he RNAd for. I told the partners I wanted to keep him and run him and gave them the option and they decided they wanted to sell their piece. I was able to bring [Joaquin Guerrero's] J Stable aboard at that time and we took him to the track straight from the sale.”

Armed with a horse they believed could take full advantage of the lucrative state-bred program in New York, Summers and his team sent Mind Your Biscuits to Saratoga and the colt validated their collective faith with runner-up efforts in his first two starts. It was after that second trip to the post that Summers admits he began to get excited.

“[Jockey] Joel [Rosario] had breezed the horse for us a couple of times and told one of the gate crew going into the gate, 'It's going to take a freak or a monster to beat us,'” Summers recollected. “And when he got to the gate for the next race he told them, 'A monster did beat us.' When he ran second in what became the fastest 2-year-old race of the meet [6 1/2 furlongs in 1:15.71]–open or otherwise–we thought that he could be a really nice horse.”

The winner that day was Championofthenile (Pioneerof the Nile), the $840,000 second highest-priced lot at the 2015 Fasig-Tipton Midlantic 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale.

Third in the $206,000 New York Futurity–the colt's major goal for 2015–and fourth to Governor Malibu (Malibu Moon) in a subsequent maiden, Mind Your Biscuits was given a six-month break and returned in 2016 with a pair of blowout wins against his fellow New York-breds around another stakes placing in the Mike Lee S. while now under the care of trainer Robert Falcone, Jr. With a couple of apparently softer options available, Summers and team opted for the most ambitious route, and it paid off with a decisive score in the GII Amsterdam S. at the Spa.

“We do a lot of homework and we know the competition and do our scouting,” Summers explained. “There was a New York-bred stakes that weekend and a two-other-than state-bred allowance that weekend, but we thought the Amsterdam was coming up a little light for what it was. That gave us the confidence to take a shot in there.”

Fifth to 'TDN Rising Star' Drefong (Gio Ponti) in the GI King's Bishop S., Mind Your Biscuits ran on nicely to fill out the exacta in the GIII Gallant Bob S. at Parx in September to arrive at yet another fork in the road.

“Originally we were going to give him a break after the Gallant Bob, but he came out of that race so good, so we said, 'OK, we'll run in the Breeders' Cup and then we'll go to the farm,'” Summers offered.

Returned to New York following his bang-up third to Drefong in the GI Breeders' Cup Sprint for a group that now included Sol Kumin's Head of Plains Partners and Michael Kisber, Mind Your Biscuits was still sending his ownership the right signals and Summers began to give serious consideration to the Malibu.

“Before the Breeders' Cup, he settled in to Santa Anita like he owned the place,” he commented. “If he would have won the Sprint, I think we would have stopped on him at that point, but we decided to take him home and keep his routine. He breezed super for Joel in New York and we're like, 'If he wants to go, we'll go on with him,' and so that's how we committed to it.”

Summers said that Mind Your Biscuits will remain in Southern California for the next week before returning to Miami. From there, connections will be faced with another choice, but one gets the sense it's a problem he doesn't really mind confronting.

“He was bouncing around the shedrow [Wednesday morning],” the University of Kentucky graduate reported. “The goal [for early 2017] was to go to the GI Met Mile, but we've been in talks with the representatives from Dubai and we'll seriously consider [the G1 Dubai Golden Shaheen Mar. 25]. He's scheduled to fly to Miami Jan. 3 and at that point, we'll decide whether we send him to Ocala and freshen him up for the Met Mile or we go on with him and point for Dubai.

He added, “We'd like to give him a break, but the horse is doing so super right now that he's almost telling us that he just wants to keep going. And the thing with him is that he just loves what he does. He loves to train, he loves to compete and you see that in his races. He's trying so hard in every one of his races. We kind of have this philosophy that we want to stop on them before they make us stop on them, but the horse could not have come out of the race any better.”

But in the interim–at a minimum–Summers is going to make sure to enjoy the euphoria of victory.

“For the horse's sake, we felt like the horse had run well enough this year to be a Grade I horse and we're thrilled to death that he's got that Grade I to his name,” he said. “To hit all those goals that we wanted to accomplish, it's a testament to the whole team we have around him. He's been so sound and that's been his best weapon. Whether you own 5% of a horse or 100% of a horse, the excitement and the thrills that you have make it all worth it–that's what this game is all about. You're going to have a lot more lows than you will highs, but the highs are sometimes beyond words and that's what Monday was for us. You talk about a race like the Malibu and some of the great horses that have won the race like Spectacular Bid…it's crazy, just crazy.”