Stonestreet Stable's Emery (More Than Ready), whose lone career loss to date came when fourth in the GI Frizette Stakes at Aqueduct last October, returns to the New York oval as the 6-5 morning-line favorite in the GIII Victory Ride Stakes Thursday. The 6 1/2-furlong race with a field of five is the lone graded event on tap for the holiday.
Trained by Brad Cox, Emery was a first-out winner at Saratoga last August before finishing some five lengths adrift of champion Just F Y I (Justify) in the Frizette. She returned six months later to take a six-furlong optional claimer at Keeneland in April and captured her first stakes victory in the Leslie's Lady S. at Churchill Downs June 9.
The Victory Ride field also includes Mystic Lake (Mo Town), who will be looking for back-to-back graded scores following her win in the May 17 GIII Miss Preakness Stakes. Like she did in the Miss Preakness, Mystic Lake will break from the rail Thursday as the race's 124-pound highweight.
“She is an older filly now, they mature,” said co-owner Mark Cornett. “She's run good races before, she is just doing it against better horses now and we hope she can carry it over.”
Mystic Lake, who also has a pair of Tampa Bay stakes wins on her resume, is 5-2 on the morning line.
Rigney Racing's Halina's Forte (Mitole), also 5-2 on the morning line, is already a stakes winner at Aqueduct following her victory in the seven-furlong Ruthless Stakes in February. She faded to eighth after setting the pace when trying two turns in the 1 1/16-mile GI Ashland Stakes at Keeneland Apr. 5 and was fourth in the seven-furlong GII Eight Belles Stakes May 3 before returning to the winner's circle in a six-furlong optional claimer at Churchill Downs May 31.
“In the early spring, you dream of maybe having an Oaks horse,” trainer Phil Bauer said of the filly's Ashland tilt. “We took a swing at it based on her good race up there going seven-eighths, but we'll just keep her one turn. Maturity and racing always helps and we'll see how far she can stretch it, but six to seven [furlongs], for now, is what we'll do.”
Although the Eight Belles effort in the slop saw Halina's Forte finish 7 1/4 lengths back of the victorious My Mane Squeeze (Audible), Bauer said he was pleased with how the filly performed and with how she responded last out.
“I'm not sure if she disliked it [wet track] so much, or if she was too close [to the pace]. I was pretty proud of her effort, and it was a pretty good race overall,” Bauer said. “I don't think she got a whole lot out of the Ashland, so maybe she came up a hair short to finish top three there, but she was able to rebound with that allowance win and now we're back to trying graded stakes.
“We knew we could take on a stakes somewhere last time, but we felt she could be a superior horse in that heat and we could build from there,” he added.
The Victory Ride is the eighth race on the Belmont at Aqueduct card and has a scheduled post time of 4:42 p.m.
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