Aqueduct: Engage looks to take off in G3 Bay Shore

By Anthony Affrunti —-

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – One race prior to the Grade 2, $1 million Wood Memorial on Saturday at Aqueduct Racetrack, 3-year-old sprinters will take the stage for the Grade 3, $250,000 Bay Shore, attracting a field of seven in the seven-furlong affair.

Leading the fray is Woodford Racing’s Engage, who has not finished worse than second through three career starts thus far and is the only graded stakes winner in the field. He was bet as a good thing in his debut at Saratoga, but repeatedly bumped with race rival National Flag not once, but twice, before finishing second 1 ¼ lengths behind.

The colt by Into Mischief returned just one day shy of a month, and graduated from the maiden ranks thanks to a stalking trip among eight others which set him up for a date in the gate in the October 17, Grade 3 Futurity at Belmont. Noticeably a bit more filled out since his last start, he launched a four-wide bid around the sweeping turn at Big Sandy, and drew clear to best the field of five by 3 ½ lengths. Now making his first start of 2018, the Chad Brown-trained colt looks to extend his win streak and progress further.

Engage will be ridden from post 5 by Hall of Fame jockey John Velazquez.

Speedy Parx shipper A Different Style looks to extend his own win streak after he shipped to Aqueduct and wired the field by three lengths in the muddy Jimmy Winkfield on February 10. The son of The Factor will make his sixth start for trainer John Servis and could be loose on the lead through the early stages.

“I hope it works out that way,” Servis said. “He’s training real well leading up to this. He showed a lot of talent leading up to the race where he ran a bad fourth, but we corrected it, and we’re looking forward to this.”

A fourth-place finish came in the Heft at Laurel Park two starts back, where he was caught in a speed duel and tired after five-eighths of the seven-furlong race. On paper, it is the lone blemish as he debuted with a strong rally to finish second at Parx and followed up with 6 ¼-length maiden-breaking victory three weeks later. A Different Style then blazed wire-to-wire in the J.F. Lewis III at Laurel that impressed Servis and inspired his start in the Heft. The performance in the Jimmy Winkfield showed that he returned to form, and could prove tough to catch.

A Different Style drew post 2 with Kendrick Carmouche aboard.

Aveenu Malcainu has been away since November and looks to make the first start of his sophomore campaign after he offered an erratic third-place effort in the Grade 2 Nashua on November 5. Despite a five-month absence from the races, trainer Jeremiah Englehart says his charge is ready to return according to Englehart.

“We gave him a little bit of a break, and sent him down to Crupi’s New Castle Farm in Ocala for a little R and R,” Englehart said. “He’s been at Palm Meadows since January. Everything is going well. He’s training well, and he’s handled the transition from Florida to New York okay, his works have been good so he’s doing fine. We’re hoping that he’ll fire right off the bench. He’s fresh.”

From his July 28 debut at Saratoga he capped his perfect summer meet with a driving victory in the Funny Cide. His toughness was displayed that afternoon after he suffered a cut to his nose in his stall that morning. After he was deemed fit to run, he did, and closed impressively.

“We had two running in stakes that day, and it was like whatever can go wrong will go wrong,” said Englehart. “He got caught in his stall, but once we saw that it was only a scratch on his nose, we were relieved.”

His next start came in the Grade 1 Champagne on October 7 at Belmont where he flattened to seventh amid a field that held Derby hopefuls Firenze Fire, Good Magic and Enticed, who finished 1-2-3 in the race.

“I was hoping he would run better than he did,” Englehart said. “He ran too hard early, and the speed was too much, but he ran two tough races early on, and we think that may have taken some of the starch out of him that day.”

Aveenu Malcainu, named after a Jewish prayer, will break from post 6, and will be ridden by Manny Franco for the first time.
WinStar Farm and China Horse Club International’s colt National Flag will face off with Engage for the second time after their bump-trading adventure upstate, but lands here after consideration was given to running in the Wood Memorial. The Speightstown colt brings two victories of his own into the race for trainer Todd Pletcher and will remain sprinting for now.

“He’s been successful at this distance and eventually we will stretch him out,” Pletcher said “We just felt like this was his second race of the year and he’s already proven that he can win at this distance. So, rather than trying to stretch him all the way out to a mile and an eighth [in the Wood Memorial], we’d just stick with what we know he does well and then go from there.”

Seventh in his debut at Saratoga before breaking his maiden, National Flag ran in the Grade 1 Hopeful, but weakened after setting the early pace and finished fifth. He wouldn’t make his next start until his 3-year-old year, where he landed in the winners’ circle at Gulfstream Park after besting six others in an optional claiming race.

National Flag will break from post 4 with Flavien Prat aboard for the first time.

Ryan Racing’s lightly raced colt Aqua Bel Sar will make just his third start, but does so off an impressive victory in the NYSS Great White Way on December 17. Sent off at odds of 37-1, the son of Trinniberg closed strong through the stretch to win by a neck.

Trainer Bisnath Parboo won the Bay Shore in 2012 with Trinniberg, who used the race as a prep towards the Derby. A return to sprinting after a 17th-place finish in the Derby led to a victory in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Santa Anita Park later that year, and was awarded the Eclipse Award as Champion Sprinter.

Aqua Bel Sar drew the outside post 7 and will be joined by Angel Arroyo in the irons.

Lucky Man Racing’s Justaholic will ship from Tampa Bay Downs for trainer Keith Nations, and make his stakes debut while bringing two victories from the Florida oval. The Kentucky-bred by Justin Phillip brings stalking speed, and has been working well towards this start.

From post 3, Justaholic will be ridden by Jose Ferrer.

Another who predicts to be close or on the front end is I’m an Ocala Dude for trainer Michelle Nevin. Off the board in his first two starts, the First Dude colt was sent out with blinkers, and turned in a third place finish before running second, and graduating in his fifth start. Jumping up to the allowance level, he responded with a 7 ¼-length win, and hasn’t been off the board in four starts over Aqueduct’s main track.

I’m an Ocala Dude drew the rail and jockey Trevor McCarthy in the saddle.