General Banker ventures out of restricted company in Jerome

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – General Banker will be stepping up in class though he’ll be running for 70 percent less purse money when he starts in Saturday’s $150,000 Jerome Stakes for 3-year-olds at Aqueduct.

General Banker is coming off a monster 8 1/2-length victory in the $500,000 Great White Way division of the New York Stallion Stakes on Dec. 17. That seven-furlong race was restricted to progeny of stallions based in New York. The Jerome will be General Banker’s ninth start, the first outside of restricted company.

“We’ll get a line on our horse,” trainer Jimmy Ferraro said. “We’ll see if he can duplicate that last performance.”

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General Banker, a son of Central Banker, had lost his first seven starts before winning the Great White Way as a maiden. He had shown improvement with the addition of blinkers, and after jockey Eric Cancel mentioned to Ferraro he thought the horse was weak behind following a Nov. 26 race, General Banker underwent some massage therapy, Ferraro said.

Ferraro said that therapy has continued since the Great White Way.

Entries for the Jerome, which offers its first five finishers qualifying points to the Kentucky Derby (10-4-3-2-1), will be taken Wednesday. Others expected to run include Arctic Arrogance, the Grade 2 Remsen runner-up; Andiamo a Firenze, a half-brother to 2018 Jerome winner Firenze Fire; and Lugan Knight, Narciso Dali, Neural Network, and possibly Valenzan Day.

Trainer John Kimmel was pointing Nov. 26 maiden winner Mariachi to the Jerome, but said the horse has been taken out of training after having a chip removed from a knee. Starquist might run instead, Kimmel said.

◗ The Queens County Stakes, lost when the final four races last Saturday were canceled due to fog, will be run this Saturday. The race will be redrawn Wednesday.

◗ Trainer Ricardo Legall won two races on Sunday’s New Year’s Day card. He won two races in all of 2022.

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