Aqueduct-Loving Bank Frenzy Heads Empire Classic

A talented assemblage of New York-breds lines up to compete in nine different stakes on Empire Classic day Oct. 25 at Aqueduct Racetrack. Among the star state-breds running on Saturday's card include last year's 2024 New York Thoroughbred Breeders' Horse of the Year My Mane Squeeze  as as well as 2024 New York-bred champion older horse Bank Frenzy  and multiple stakes winner The Wine Steward . 

The centerpiece of Saturday afternoon is the $250,000 Empire Classic Stakes for New York-bred 3-year-olds and up. LSU Stables' Bank Frenzy, a six-time winner at Big A, heads a salty group of state-breds for the 1 1/8-mile main track feature.

A 5-year-old son of Central Banker  , Bank Frenzy captured three stakes races at Aqueduct over the winter, including the Stymie Stakes against open company. Fourth in the Westchester Stakes (G3) in May, he ran a 104 Equibase Speed Figure when taking the Commentator Stakes at Saratoga Race Course before finishing fifth in the 7-furlong John Morrissey Stakes. The gelding has been unraced since the July 31 John Morrissey. 

"He's doing great," trainer Rudy Rodriguez said of Bank Frenzy. "I'm just very pleased the owners gave me the chance to back off a little bit (and target this race). Day by day, we just keep him happy and healthy and hopefully everything goes good. He's very happy."

Bank Frenzy was second in last year's Empire Classic to Mama's Gold , who is absent from this year's seven-horse field.

Jockey Manny Franco, the gelding's rider in his last seven outings, has the call. 

Tristar Farm's Doc Sullivan  soundly defeated Bank Frenzy this summer with his late-running victory in the John Morrissey. A two-time stakes winner, the 4-year-old son of Solomini   returns to face state-breds after turning in back-to-back fourth-place efforts against graded company in the Forego (G1) and Vosburgh (G3) stakes.

Trained by John Ortiz, the Empire Classic will be Doc Sullivan's first time going 1 1/8 miles since he was sixth in last year's Pennsylvania Derby (G1). He was, however, beaten only a nose by Bank Frenzy in the one-mile Alex M. Robb Stakes at the Big A in December.

Also in the field is Chester and Mary Broman's homebred Into Mischief   colt, Iron Dome . Raced by the Bromans in partnership with L and N Racing, 3-year-old Iron Dome dominated state-breds by a combined 28 1/4 lengths in a three-race win skein this summer at Saratoga, capped by a triumph in the Albany Stakes. 

Second last time out in the Oklahoma Derby (G3), the Empire Classic will be the Steve Asmussen trainee's first try against older horses.

Other stakes for New York-breds on the card include the $250,000 Empire Distaff, the $200,000 Hudson (led by The Wine Steward), the $200,000 Sleepy Hollow, the $200,000 Maid of the Mist, the $200,000 Mohawk, the $200,000 Iroquois (led by My Mane Squeeze), the $200,000 New York Turf Sprint Championship, and the $200,000 Ticonderoga.