Racing

Freshened Emery Ready for Saturday's Lexus Raven Run Challenge

Stonestreet Stables’ Emery will make her return to the races Saturday in the $350,000 Lexus Raven Run (G2) for 3-year-old fillies going 7 furlongs.

Perfect at Keeneland in her lone race here, Emery has been away from the races since her second in the Aug. 3 Test (G1) at Saratoga.

“We gave her time off after that big effort in the Test against Ways and Means,” said Blake Cox, assistant to his father, trainer Brad Cox. “She’s now Grade 1-placed and doing well.”

Ways and Means has emerged as one of the leading candidates for the PNC Bank Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint (G1) at Del Mar on Nov. 2.

Emery has won four of six races with Tyler Gaffalione, her Saturday pilot, aboard for all of those victories. Her past three starts came in a two-month span beginning June 9 at Churchill Downs.

“She ran those three races pretty close together, and we wanted to give her time to recover from the Test,” Cox said of Emery, who has had five works since Sept. 6 at Churchill with the most recent being a half-mile breeze in :49 last Saturday. “She’s doing well, and this a good group of fillies (she’s facing Saturday).”