The 2017 Breeders’ Cup Festival is just two weeks away.
For many, the annual series of Grade 1 races attracting the best horses, trainers, and owners in the world is a fitting finale for the racing season, with legends to be born, history to be made, and fortunes to be won.
For owner/trainer Chad Summers, it’s the culmination of a 365-day road to redemption and revenge.
“We have unfinished business,ā he said, referring to the 2016 Breedersā Cup Sprint when his superstar colt, Mind Your Biscuits, finished second by 1 1/4 lengths to Drefong. āThey kind of looked at us as an outsider. They didnāt give us much of a chance.ā
From Biscuits winning the Grade 2 Belmont Sprint Championship and earning his Breederās Cup entry, to a disappointing Saratoga stint that was capped off by a non-effort in his long-awaited rematch with Drefong in the Grade 1 Forego, the pairās journey has been well-documented.
āNobody ever said this game was easy,ā Summers told me after the Forego. āItās a very humbling sport. Every time you put the bridle on and lead them over, you want to win. Youāll lose some races, youāll have some bad racing luck. Sometimes youāre on top of the world, and sometimes you feel like youāre under the Titanic.ā
One question asked by many armchair jockeys following the flat-running Forego was why Summers decided to run Biscuits, even though reports leading up to the race emerged about his poor workouts. Even Summers was unsure, up until the last workout, whether or not he would allow his colt to compete.
āAfter we breezed him at Saratoga the first time, we couldnāt really come up with an answer for what was going on,ā he said. āI shouldāve scrapped my plans for the Forego right then and there. If you watch his workouts at Saratoga, heās just not into it. I liked the last work, which made me decide to run him in the Forego, but I think I liked it because it was better than what I had seen, rather than looking back and comparing to what heās done in the last year and a half. That was a mistake. The last workout was better than the previous two, but in hindsight, it wasnāt good enough to compete at Saratoga in a Grade 1 against the defending Sprint champion.
With Saratoga behind him, the 4-year-old son of Posse made his way back to his former stall at Belmont Park, where by all accounts, he seems to be back to the āoldā Biscuits. Since returning to the work tab on September 24, heās fired two bullets, including a best-of-54 trip around 4 furlongs in :46.55.
āI think heās getting back to himself,ā Summers said. āWhether itās the weather or the noise or whatever it was at Saratoga, we always thought that he just wasnāt himself. Now, his mind is right, and heās breezing exactly like before the Belmont Sprint. Thatās what we needed to see.ā
Summers isnāt the only one recognizing the speedsterās return. Ask Irad Ortiz, Jr., who was on Biscuits when he broke his maiden 18 months ago, or Joel Rosario, whoās been aboard for 10 of Biscuitsā 17 career starts with a record of 5-4-0-0. Both breezed Biscuits at Belmont last month.
āItās not about times ā yes, he worked fast, but itās how heās doing it and the conversations with the riders when they get back,ā he said. āWhen Irad breezed him, he said, āI felt like I was in my BMW,ā because he was just cruising. After Joel rode him (in his last workout), he said, āHeās back, heās back. Heās even better.ā Those are the kinds of things you want to hear.ā
The plan is for Biscuits to breeze one last time on Saturday, October 21, before traveling to southern California on Tuesday, October 24, with stablemate Paquita Coqueta. Traditionally, Summers likes to run Biscuits in company shortly before he races, but heās having difficulty making that happen before they leave.
āNot a lot of people want to breeze against Biscuits in the morning,ā he said. āI need to find some company for him to breeze a 1/2-mile. Once we get to Del Mar, Iāll look to blow him out a little bit the week of the race, probably more for me than for him.ā
While Summers will make many of the same preparations as his rival trainers, donāt be surprised if Biscuits is witnessed wearing ear buds while warming up at Del Mar, a trick Summers utilized to great success last year.
āIn the Breedersā Cup, he enjoyed āAll the Way Upā by Fat Joe,ā he said. āFor the most part, it was the early 2000s (hip-hop) music that got to him. If you play it next to him, all of a sudden, heāll get geeked up, his ears will go forward, and heāll start strutting to the music. Thatās his big jam right now.ā
With any luck, Summers and Biscuits will soon jam all the way up to victory.
Stay tuned next week and all year long asĀ racingdudes.comĀ follows Chad Summers and Mind Your Biscuits on their quest for vengeance in the Grade 1, $1,500,000 Breedersā Cup Sprint on November 4, 2017.
Previous profiles:
Finding a Star: Chad Summers Profile #1
Training a Star: Chad Summers Profile #2
New York State of Mind: Chad Summers Profile #3
Stable Update: Chad Summers Profile #4
Growing a Barn: Chad Summers Profile #5
Forego Showdown: Chad Summers Profile #6
