Mind Your Biscuits appears to be entering Saturday’s Dubai Golden Shaheen (G1) in top form, if his morning activities at Meydan are any indication.
The Malibu (G1) winner polished off his preparations with a quarter-mile blowout Tuesday in :22.20, according to trainer Chad Summers, who caught him galloping out three-eighths in :37.40 and a half-mile in :52.
“That’s why we bring our team out with us these days,” Summers told the notes team.
“Everything was perfect. We put some air in his lungs and now we know he likes the track. Now we just wait for the draw tomorrow and keep our fingers crossed.”
At Wednesday’s draw, Mind Your Biscuits wound up on the far outside in post 14, but the closer figures to get a beneficial pace set-up.
And he was just as chipper the day after his blowout.
“He came out of his work super,” Summers said. “I couldn’t be happier with him. He’s a horse who is doing well and right now we’re just hoping things stay like this through the race. I’m very confident in him.”
Fellow Shaheen contender St. Joe Bay stretched his legs Wednesday, negotiating a quarter-mile in :24.60. The Peter Miller trainee has the opposite running style – as a confirmed front runner who’s compiled a three-race winning streak on the cutback to sprints.
“Once he won the first race easy sprinting, there was no point in stretching him back out,” Miller said. “He showed me that he’s a better sprinter.”
In Monday’s notes, exercise rider Jesse Sauder commented on St. Joe Bay’s demeanor.
“He felt great. He’s a very calm, collected, professional horse. He’s a fun horse to ride. He’s actually like a big teddy bear.”
Miller also sent out his Al Quoz Sprint (G1) hopeful Richard’s Boy for a Wednesday blowout in :24.
“He likes to run and he wants to win,” Miller said. “He’s going to try his best. He might not be as good as these other horses but no horse is going to try harder than him.”
Stallwalkin’ Dude, who rounds out the American trio in the Golden Shaheen, is scheduled for his final lung-opener on Thursday.
Mind Your Biscuits tops U.S. squad for Dubai Golden Shaheen
The U.S. contingent was supposed to include Imperial Hint, who just beat Stallwalkin’ Dude in the General George. But his fever after shipping to Dubai threatened to turn into something worse.
As the Dubai Racing Club notes phrased it, “a small amount of fluid was detected in his right lung during an ultrasound examination on Monday afternoon.” He was thereby ruled out and treated for “apparently a minor infection.”
“This was like a one in two million chance for me to be here this year,” trainer Luis Carvajal Jr. said, “so I don’t know when my next chance will be. It would be a miracle to come again. I’m really sad not to be able to participate.
“This can happen to any horse,” Carvajal said of the post-travel fever, but noted that action had to be taken to ward off the pneumonia threat.
“We’ve got to be very careful about this. It seems that he will have enough time to recuperate and go back home on March 29 with the rest of the (American-based) horses. It’s very good that the horse will be fine. Everything will be all right but it will be bittersweet to be here and watch the races.
“This was a wonderful opportunity to come here to Dubai and be a part of this beautiful festival, and I wish it would have been a different scenario.”
With Imperial Hint being only a four-year-old, perhaps the promising sprinter will be able to come back for Dubai World Cup night in 2018.
