Engage by a nose over Forced in Gold Fever Stakes

Engage had to fight harder than expected, but he outlasted a stubborn pacesetting Forced to win Sunday’s $100,000 Gold Fever Stakes by a nose at muddy Belmont Park.

It was 19 1/4 lengths back to A Different Style in the scratch-reduced field of three.

The win was the third in five starts for Engage, a son of Into Mischief owned by Woodford Racing and trained by Chad Brown who last year won the Grade 3 Futurity, also going six furlongs at Belmont.

Despite there being only three horses in the race, it looked as though the race would set up sweetly for Engage as both Forced and A Different Style were speed horses, while Engage was a closer.

But Forced, under Edgar Prado, was quicker than A Different Style and opened up a clear lead through a half-mile of 22.15 seconds. Jose Ortiz got to pushing on Engage to get closer along the inside before tipping to the outside for the stretch drive.

In upper stretch, it looked as though Engage would blow right by Forced, but the Parx shipper battled back under Edgar Prado before succumbing late.

Engage covered the six furlongs in 1:09.95 and returned $3.50 to win.

“Today, he had to fight hard, and he did. I’m very proud of him,” said Ortiz, adding that he knew Forced “was going to get the lead easy enough, and you never know with a sloppy track. The other horse fought hard, but mine did, too. I’m just happy we got the win.”

Brown was using the Gold Fever as a prep for the Grade 2, $500,000 Woody Stephens on the June 9 Belmont Stakes card.