Highweighted Bank Frenzy will have to run down El Grande O in Alex M. Robb

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Aside from an eight-pound weight difference, very little seems to separate Bank Frenzy and El Grande O when the two in-form runners clash in Saturday’s $100,000 Alex M. Robb Stakes for New York-breds at Aqueduct.

Bank Frenzy, a 4-year-old gelding by Central Banker, has two wins and two seconds from four starts since being purchased privately in the spring by LSU Stables and turned over to Rudy Rodriguez. Bank Frenzy’s victory in the Evan Shipman Stakes at Saratoga means he’ll be the starting highweight at 126 pounds and will be conceding three to eight pounds to his seven rivals.

Bank Frenzy is 3 for 3 on wet tracks, a tangible that could come into play if rain shows up as forecasted Saturday. Bank Frenzy is coming off a 3 3/4-length win over a sealed muddy surface in a second-level allowance going a mile here on Nov. 23. Prior to that, he finished second, 4 1/4 lengths behind Mama’s Gold in the Empire Classic, a result that looks better considering Mama’s Gold came back to win a second-level allowance of his own with a 103 Beyer Speed Figure.

Bank Frenzy, who drew post 7 under Manny Franco, is a closer and will need someone to run with El Grande O in the early stages of the one-mile Alex Robb.

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El Grande O is back with New York-breds for the first time since he won the Sleepy Hollow Stakes over the mud in October 2023. This year, he has made all five of his starts in open company with a trio of stakes placings during the winter.

Following a break to recover from injury, El Grande O has won a pair of allowance races against open company, each going 6 1/2 furlongs.

“I was very pleased with those two races and he’s obviously proven in the past the mile is within his reach,” trainer Linda Rice said. “I think those two races under his belt should set him up well for this race.”

Rice also entered Sheriff Bianco. He was third to Bank Frenzy in the Evan Shipman in August. Most recently, Sheriff Bianco finished fifth in an open-company allowance.

Doc Sullivan won the Mike Lee in the slop at Saratoga in June and finished second in both the New York Derby and Albany. After a sixth in the Grade 1 Pennsylvania Derby, Doc Sullivan finished fourth in the Thunder Rumble division of the New York Stallion Series, adversely reacting to mud being kicked back at him.

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“He’s a little better horse if you can get him to the outside,” trainer Mike Miceli said.

Trainer Jorge Abreu has won four of the last five races in which he’s had a starter at Aqueduct. Saturday, he sends out Colloquy, a last-to-first winner of a one-mile statebred allowance on Nov. 22, a race from which the third-place finisher Bourbon Chase came back to win his next start with a career-best 93 Beyer Speed Figure.

Whittington Park, Neural Network, and Olympic Dreams complete the field.

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