OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Though seven furlongs may not be her preferred distance, Paris Lights seems to have found a good spot to return from a 258-day layoff in Friday’s Grade 3, $150,000 Distaff Handicap at Aqueduct. Paris Lights, a daughter of Curlin trained by Bill Mott for WinStar Stablemates Racing, won three consecutive two-turn races last year after finishing third in a seven-furlong maiden race at Gulfstream in April. Paris Lights has not run since she won the Grade 1 Coaching Club American Oaks at Saratoga last July 18. She developed a splint bone injury in a hind leg training toward the Alabama, and was given the remainder of the year off. :: Bet horse racing on DRF Bets. Double Your First Deposit Up to $250. Join Now. While the Distaff wasn’t originally on the docket for Paris Lights, Mott said the timing of it is better than something like the Doubledogdare at Keeneland on April 16, considering he’s hoping to get her to the Grade 1 La Troienne at Churchill on April 30. “I think she probably wants to go farther,” Mott said Wednesday. “This is a means to an end, but this is important enough in itself. We feel as we stretch her out she should be better.” Paris Lights shows nine works at the Payson Park training center in Florida for her return. Mott is 2 for 17 the last five years bringing a horse back in a graded stakes off a layoff of 180 days or longer. Junior Alvarado, back from Florida where he had a strong winter, will be aboard Paris Lights for the first time on Friday. The Distaff has two others returning from a layoff. The 5-year-old Lady Kate, who won the Groupie Doll last summer at Ellis Park, makes her first start since a last-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff, where she was part of a lively early pace and faded. Like Mott with Paris Lights, trainer Eddie Kenneally is using the Distaff as a starting point for Lady Kate, who has had more success around two turns than one. Lady Kate shows seven works leading to her return. “She’s a filly that held her fitness real good, even though she had time off on the farm after the Breeders’ Cup,” Kenneally said. “She didn’t take much to get her ready to run again. She’s in good order, has had plenty of work over the last six or eight weeks, and is ready to go back to work.” Trevor McCarthy rides from post 2. Honor Way, trained by Charlton Baker, won her last two starts of 2020, including the Pumpkin Pie Stakes at Belmont in November and the Garland of Roses at Aqueduct on Dec. 6. She needed some time to recover from a bruised foot. Honor Way will have to carry high weight of 124 pounds, spotting three pounds to Paris Lights. Portal Creek finished a well-beaten second to Lake Avenue in the Heavenly Prize and was beaten only a neck by Sharp Starr in the Grade 3 Go for Wand here last December. In addition to the Distaff, Friday’s eight-race card has the first two turf races of the year on this circuit, weather permitting.