Engage, National Flag may not be whole show in Bay Shore Stakes

Engage will be favored in the $250,000 Bay Shore at Aqueduct on Saturday and National Flag will likely be second choice. But the seven-furlong sprint for 3-year-olds may not be as simple as it first appears.

Engage is 2 for 3 and is trained by Chad Brown, who has won three of the last four Bay Shores, with Long Haul Bay (2017), March (2015), and Coup de Grace (2014). The difference is those horses raced at 3 before the Bay Shore and this will be Engage’s first start since winning the Grade 3 Futurity at Belmont Park in October.

Although Brown is known for his ability to bring horses back from layoffs, Engage’s lack of recency at least cracks open the door for his rivals.

Engage finished second to National Flag in his Saratoga debut last August. He returned to win a maiden race and then rallied from off the pace to be clearly best at 3-5 in the six-furlong Futurity.

Brown has worked Engage eight times at Palm Meadows since Feb. 10.

National Flag is 2 for 4 and is trained by Todd Pletcher. He stalked and then overtook Belle Tapisserie to win a seven-furlong optional-claiming race at Gulfstream Park in his 3-year-old debut, earning a 98 Beyer Speed Figure.

That number is 12 points higher than the next best in the field – Engage’s Futurity figure – and will earn National Flag plenty of support Saturday. It should be noted Belle Tapisserie was beaten 14 lengths in the Hutcheson in his next start.

Flying under the radar are A Different Style and Aveenu Malcainu.

A Different Style, who went wire to wire to win the seven-furlong Jimmy Winkfield at Aqueduct on Feb. 10, is 3 for 5, with both losses coming to the promising but still unproven Diamond King.

A Different Style won the James F. Lewis III at Laurel Park in November for trainer John Servis, then threw in the only poor effort of his career in the Dec. 30 Heft Stakes, faltering to finish a badly beaten fourth.

“He had an issue coming out of the Heft,” Servis said. “We straightened that out and he bounced back with a big effort in the Winkfield. If you take the Heft out, he hasn’t done too much wrong. He’s ready for this race.”

Aveenu Malcainu started off his career great guns for Jeremiah Engelhart, beating New York-breds twice at Saratoga, including a 2 1/2-length score in the $200,000 Funny Cide. Sent off as the 3-1 favorite in the Grade 1 Champagne, he went too fast early and tired. In his 2-year-old finale, he moved up to challenge Avery Island in upper stretch of the Grade 2 Nashua but flattened out to finish third.

Since vacationing in Ocala, he has worked three times at Palm Meadows and three times at Belmont Park.

“It seems he’s at his best, and he was excellent in his last work, but I don’t need him to run his best race in the Bay Shore,” Engelhart said. “This is his first race back and should give him something to build on. Having said that, he’s competitive and wants to do it.”