Engage an easy winner in Futurity

ELMONT, N.Y. – Eventually, Engage will get the opportunity to prove himself at a distance of ground. For now, however, he’s doing just fine as a one-turn horse.

Engage, under a confident Jose Ortiz, rallied from last in a field of five to win Saturday’s Grade 3, $150,000 Futurity at Belmont Park by 3 1/2 lengths over Barry Lee. It was 4 3/4 lengths back to Mojovation, who stumbled at the break, in third. Red Peril and Smooth B completed the order of finish.

The win was the second from three starts for Engage, a son of Into Mischief owned by Woodford Racing and trained by Chad Brown. After finishing second to National Flag in his debut at Saratoga on Aug. 5, Engage won his second start by a half-length at Saratoga on Sept. 4. All three of his races have been at six furlongs.

“He’s kind of a medium-sized, compact type, real sharp in his works, so I thought it made sense to keep him at sprint distances for now,” Brown said. “We’ll find out over time how far he can ultimately go.”

In the Futurity, Engage broke sharp, but Ortiz was content to take him back as Red Peril and Mojovation sparred on the lead through a quarter in 22.52 seconds and a half-mile in 45.76. Engage was only 1 1/2 lengths back sitting behind Mojovation and outside of Barry Lee.

Turning for home, Ortiz guided Engage four wide and he advanced quickly to the leaders, taking the lead above the three-sixteenths pole. Barry Lee, under Joel Rosario, had to wait slightly for room. Once he got it, he split horses and closed well, but was no match for Engage while finishing 4 3/4 lengths ahead of Mojovation.

Engage covered the six furlongs in 1:10.09 and returned $3.10 as the 1-2 favorite.

“Last week he worked tremendously nice,” Ortiz said. “With the post that I had today, I knew he was going to be tough. When I asked him to go at the three-sixteenths pole and I got the hole and I went outside [Mojovation], he really exploded. He gave me a great turn of foot.”

Brown said he would like to try stretch Engage out in distance around one turn first, but said the Grade 3 Nashua, a one-turn mile race at Aqueduct on Nov. 5, might be a little quick back.

“I’m going to see how trains exiting this race and talk to the ownership group and see what happens,” Brown said.