Brown has Shagaf, My Man Sam for Gotham

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – It was a good news-bad news-good news kind of weekend for trainer Chad Brown as far as his 3-year-olds were concerned.

Winning performances by Shagaf at Gulfstream Park on Friday and My Man Sam at Aqueduct on Sunday sandwiched the fourth-place finish by Flexibility, the 1-2 favorite, in Saturday’s Grade 3, $250,000 Withers Stakes at Aqueduct.

Flexibility, coming off a dominant victory in the Grade 3 Jerome, was beaten two lengths in the Withers. He was rank early when jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. tried to take him back off what developed into a pedestrian pace. Then he bumped repeatedly with Adventist in the stretch.

Brown said Flexibility came out of the race in good order, but there were no immediate plans for the New York-bred son of Bluegrass Cat.

“In hindsight, it probably would have been nice to see him on the lead, given the pace and the fact he broke sharp,” Brown said Monday by phone from Florida. “But with that said, when you’re [1-2] and in close range, he’s supposed to bull his way through and fire, and he didn’t. I can’t make too many excuses for the horse, and right now we’re just going to evaluate him. He’s a really nice horse, and it’s the only time he hasn’t fired in all of his races for us.”

The next major stakes for 3-year-olds in New York is the Grade 3, $400,000 Gotham here on March 5. That race could be under consideration for Shagaf or My Man Sam. Shagaf won a first-level allowance race Friday at Gulfstream Park and is now 2 for 2. He is owned by Sheikh Hamdan’s Shadwell Stable, which also owns Mohaymen, who won Saturday’s Holy Bull Stakes at Gulfstream and is 4 for 4. If Mohaymen runs in the Fountain of Youth Stakes on Feb. 27, Shagaf could end up in the Gotham.

“If he trains healthy and we breeze him how we want, when we want, that’s the time period I’d like to run the horse, between the Fountain of Youth and the Gotham,” said Brown, who would like to run Shagaf in the April 9 Wood Memorial at Aqueduct.

Brown noted that Shagaf had gotten sick after his six-length maiden win Nov. 22, which is why he didn’t hit the work tab until Jan. 3. He had four half-mile breezes leading up to his return, which he won by two lengths with an ideal trip.

“I just didn’t have the horse anywhere near fully cranked,” Brown said. “I thought it was a good starting point to just run him, get another race under his belt, a little bit more experience, and use that allowance race as that last little piece of fitness that we need to move on into stakes company.”

On Sunday at Aqueduct, My Man Sam rallied from 15 lengths back to win a maiden race by eight lengths. A son of Trappe Shot, My Man Sam covered the 1 1/16 miles in 1:46.43 and was assigned an 84 Beyer Speed Figure.

“He always acted like a horse who wanted to go two turns on the dirt; he just took a while to come together mentally,” said Brown, who added that he had no immediate plans for the colt.

Sunny Ridge came out of his win in the Withers in good shape, and trainer Jason Servis said Sunday he would like to make the Gotham with the New Jersey-bred son of Holy Bull. Sunny Ridge earned an 87 Beyer for the Withers.

Adventist, who ran third in the Withers, also likely will point to the Gotham, trainer Leah Gyarmati said. Adventist broke slowly in the Withers, had a little difficulty with the first turn, raced three wide throughout, and exchanged bumps with Flexibility in the stretch. He was beaten only 1 3/4 lengths.

“For his second start, first around two turns, I was really impressed,” Gyarmati said.