Tequilita goes in Raven Run to stick with own age group

LEXINGTON, Ky. – No one could have blamed Michael Matz for sending Tequilita to the Breeders’ Cup after the 3-year-old filly won the Charles Town Oaks last month. But discretion is part of what has made Matz such a successful trainer, and it’s what led him to forgo the BC Filly and Mare Sprint in favor of the Grade 2, $250,000 Raven Run at Keeneland on Saturday.

“It’s just a better fit for us, staying with 3-year-olds and all,” said Matz, who trains Tequilita in the name of his wife, Dorothy Alexander Matz.

Tequilita, with Feargal Lynch to ride, is among the top contenders in the seven-furlong Raven Run, which anchors a 10-race Saturday card expected to be run amid splendid autumn weather. The Charles Town Oaks marked the third stakes victory in the 10-race career of Tequilita, a homebred Union Rags filly who has been given her chances in major events such as the Kentucky Oaks (seventh) and Test (third).

A field of 11 3-year-old fillies was entered in the Raven Run on Wednesday. Conspicuously missing from the lineup is Valadorna, the runner-up in the 2016 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies. Unraced since late February because of a hind-leg injury, the Stonestreet Stables homebred had been tentatively pointed to the race until trainer Mark Casse reconsidered.

“We’re going to take a different route, something a little easier,” said Casse. “Hopefully, you’ll see her in the entries real soon.”

The stakes schedule for this final full week of the Keeneland fall meet culminates Sunday with the Grade 3, $125,000 Dowager, a 1 1/2-mile turf race for fillies and mares.