Empire Classic, Empire Distaff highlight annual Empire Showcase Day

A total of 109 New York-breds are entered for a special 11-race card on Saturday at Belmont Park to celebrate the best of New York for the annual Empire Showcase Day, featuring eight stakes races worth $1.2 million, topped by the $175,000 Empire Classic and $175,000 Empire Distaff.

Veteran New York-based owner-trainer H. James Bond will saddle a pair of contenders on the lucrative card, including Evaluator in the featured 45th running of the Empire Classic and Rinaldi in the $150,000 Mohawk.

"The New York breds are showing up all over the country and doing very, very well. A day like this, to show the rest of the world how good they are, is important," said Bond. "It's usually full fields and it's nice to show all our hard work and give the owners and breeders their due acknowledgement for all the good things they do for us."

R and H Stable's Evaluator will square off against multiple stakes winners Mr. Buff, Funny Guy and Sea Foam in a loaded renewal of the nine-furlong Empire Classic in Race 10.

Bred in the Empire State by EKQ Stables, the 5-year-old Overanalyze gelding captured the 2017 Sleepy Hollow in his first Empire Showcase Day appearance when conditioned by Michael Dilger. After finishing off-the-board in the 2018 Empire Classic, Evaluator was transferred to Bond's care and picked up his first win in four starts last out with a 13-length score over Empire Classic-rival Our Last Buck in a nine-furlong optional-claiming tilt over a sloppy Saratoga strip.

"He's a nice little horse. He's had a few setbacks over the last year but he's pulled through and he's doing very well training-wise," said Bond. "There will be a few tough horses in there to run against, of course, but it's a good spot to run a mile and an eighth with him."

Chester and Mary Broman's Mr. Buff will look to defend his title for trainer John Kimmel. A 14-time winner from 39 career starts with more than $1.1 million in the bank, Mr. Buff enjoyed a profitable winter at Aqueduct winning the Alex M. Robb against state-breds in December and the open Jazil in January before romping to a 20-length score over state-breds in the Haynesfield at one mile on the Big A main.

Following a runner-up effort to Empire Classic-rival Funny Guy in the Commentator in June at Belmont, Mr. Buff has finished off-the-board in a pair of graded events.

Gatsas Stables, R.A. Hill Stable and Swick Stable's Funny Guy was a last-out second to Complexity in the Vosburgh (G2) on Sept. 26 at Belmont Park after finishing fourth in the Forego (G1) on Aug. 29 over a sloppy main track at Saratoga.

The John Terranova trainee, a son of Big Brown bred by Hibiscus Stables, will now stretch out to nine furlongs, a distance at which the four-time New York-bred stakes winner bested Empire Classic-rival Bankit in the 2019 Albany at Saratoga.

Watervillle Lake Stable homebred Sea Foam captured the 2017 Notebook at Aqueduct, the 2018 New York Derby at Finger Lakes and the 2018 Albany at Saratoga for trainer Christophe Clement. The seven-time winning son of Medaglia d'Oro, who was seventh in last year's Empire Classic, enters on a two-race win streak.

West Point Thoroughbreds, Chester and Mary Broman, Woodford Racing, Siena Farm and Robert Masiello's Chestertown, a $2 million purchase at the March 2019 OBS Two-Year-Olds in Training Sale, matched a career-best 85 Beyer Speed Figure last out in a three-quarter length score in the Albany on Sept. 4 at the Spa under Jose Ortiz for Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen.

The Tapit grey graduated at second asking in December and wintered at Fair Grounds in Louisiana, where he was off-the-board in the Grade 2 Louisiana Derby. He entered the Albany from a distant sixth in the Grade 3 Peter Pan at Saratoga.

"He's been doing well. Everyone was very excited about him at the beginning of the year and Steve has managed him very well," said Terry Finley of West Point Thoroughbreds. "He's a bit of a challenge and he's not a straightforward horse. That's one reason why we gave him to Steve. He has a proven track record with Tapits and they can be a challenge to train. Jose will ride him back following the win in the Albany."

Additional Empire Classic contenders include Winston's Chance (David Donk), Our Last Buck (Michelle Nevin), and Bankit (Asmussen).

Veteran New York-based trainer Jeremiah Englehart will saddle four Empire Showcase Day stakes hopefuls, including Captain Bombastic (Hudson) and Party At Page's (Maid of the Mist), along with Makingcents and Critical Value in the co-featured Empire Distaff for fillies and mares 3-years-old and up going 1 1/16 miles over Big Sandy in Race 6.

Englehart said Empire Showcase Day is circled on his calendar as a key day each year.

"It gives us a chance to show off some of our better New York-breds. We focus on buying New York-breds year in and year out, so it's always nice when you have horses that can make these races," said Englehart. "We've been fortunate the last few years to have won some of these races. Hopefully, these horses will represent our team well on Showcase Day."

The stakes-winning Makingcents, a Goldencents sophomore, ran twice at the just-concluded Saratoga summer meet, including a last out win in the Fleet Indian going a two-turn nine furlongs on Sept. 4.

"I think it will be a little easier for her at Belmont than at Saratoga," Englehart said regarding Saturday's one-turn test. "I don't know if she likes to go that far but she likes to run and she tries. I just hope she shows up and runs her race. It seems like her best race was at Belmont even though that was a very nice race she won at Saratoga."

Ten Strike Racing's Critical Value captured the Bouwerie in June at Belmont when sprinting in her seasonal debut ahead of an off-the-board effort in the two-turn Fleet Indian in September at Saratoga.

Last out, the Bodemeister sophomore was a game third against older fillies and mares in a one-turn mile open allowance on Sept. 27 at Belmont.

"I thought that was probably one of her better races even though she ended up being third," said Englehart. "The circumstances of the race and who was in there, I thought she ran a really big race. Hopefully it doesn't take too much out of her coming into this race."

2020 Empire Classic (RS)

Two-time stakes winner Ratajkowski will look to repeat in the Empire Distaff. Owned by Gary Broad and trained by Graham Motion, the 6-year-old Drosselmeyer mare won the Critical Eye going one mile on June 18 at Belmont in her last appearance on the track and won last year's Empire Distaff when it was contested at one mile.

Other contenders include last-out allowance winner Singular Sensation, trained by Mark Hennig; Forever Changed (Charlton Baker); Mrs. Orb (Michael Miceli); and Lucky Move (Juan Carlos Guerrero).