A year removed from a clean sweep at the New York Thoroughbred Breeders Annual Awards Banquet at Saratoga National Golf Club, Mind Your Biscuits stole the show again.
Mind Your Biscuits earned three champion New York-bred honors – Horse of the Year, male sprinter and older dirt male for 2017. The trio of state-bred championships come on the immediate heels of the 5-year-old son of Posse’s second straight win in the $2 million Dubai Golden Shaheen at Meydan Racecourse and last year’s New York-bred honors as Horse of the Year, 3-year-old male and male sprinter.
Bred by Samantha Will Baccari’s Jumping Jack Racing and foaled at Sue and Gary Lundy’s Cedar Ridge Farm in Pine Plains, Mind Your Biscuits won two of six starts with two seconds and a third in 2017. He won the Group 1 Golden Shaheen and Grade 2 Belmont Sprint Championship and finished the season with a third in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint and a second in the Cigar Mile.
Mind Your Biscuits is the all-time leading earner among New York-breds with a bankroll of $3,719,286.
Winners in the non-voting categories were Chester and Mary Broman as breeder of the year for the fifth time, Linda Rice as trainer for a record sixth time and Irad Ortiz Jr. as jockey for the third straight year and fourth overall. Jazzmane, dam of Mind Your Biscuits, was named broodmare of the year for the second straight year.
Each of the winners was profiled in a special commemorative program produced by the team at ST Publishing and The Saratoga Special. Here’s the profile of Mind Your Biscuits and a full list of the individual champions.
Horse of the Year, male sprinter, older dirt male: Mind Your Biscuits
Ch. c., Posse–Jazzmane, Toccet.
Breeder: Jumping Jack Racing.
Owner: Head of Plains, J Stables, M. Scott Summers, Daniel Summers and Chad Summers, Michael Kisber. Trainer: Chad Summers.
2017 record: 6-2-2-1, $1,713,800.
2017 stakes: Dubai Golden Shaheen (G1), Belmont Sprint Champ. (G2).
Earning the title of New York-bred Horse of the Year in 2016 with Mind Your Biscuits still brings pride to trainer and co-owner Chad Summers. Fresh off winning the Group 1 Dubai Golden Shaheen a few days before the awards ceremony, Summers called the New York Thoroughbred Breeders recognition a symbol of the program’s success.
“It was one of those things where we won the award right on the heels of coming back from Dubai and they were showing clips of the race,” said Summers, who took over the horse’s training from Robert Falcone Jr. after the 2016 season. “To embrace not only being an American horse to go over there and win the race, but to do it for New York for a horse who was New York-sired as well, I think is a big deal. All year long, we wore that crown proudly and I think we had a really solid year.
In addition to winning in Dubai in late March, Mind Your Biscuits started 2017 with a second behind Unified in the Grade 3 Gulfstream Park Sprint, and blasted six others in the Grade 2 Belmont Sprint in July. The son of Posse finished sixth in the Grade 1 Forego at Saratoga and was third (beaten 3 lengths) in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Sprint in November. In December, he stretched a bit in distance and finished second to Sharp Azteca in the Grade 1 Cigar Mile to close the campaign.
Summers knows his horse wasn’t the only New York-bred star in 2017 as Bar Of Gold took down the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint for Chester and Mary Broman and trainer John Kimmel.
“It’s funny, in any other year, once you won in Dubai, you wrapped up New York-bred Horse of the Year for 2017, but that’s not the case here with as strong as the New York-breds were last year,” he said of his horse’s chances at the big prize. “To see how the division has grown and changed and what being a New Yorkbred means, it’s important to know that New York-breds can win anywhere. The New York-bred program, from a stallion rewards perspective, from a breeders’ awards perspective, is phenomenal.”
And for another encore, Mind Your Biscuits came from well back to win the 2018 Golden Shaheen March 31 in Dubai and pass $3.7 million in career earnings.
Other New York-bred champions for 2017:
Female Sprinter, Older Dirt Female: Bar of Gold
2-Year-Old Male: Therapist
2-Year-Old Filly: Pure Silver
3-Year-Old Male: Twisted Tom
3-Year-Old Filly: Fifty Five
Turf Male: Disco Partner
Turf Female: Fourstar Crook
Read all the profiles in the 2017 NYTB Awards Dinner program
