Your So Sillea at top of her game for Twin Bridges Stakes

The last time she ran in a stakes race things didn’t go especially well for the 5-year-old mare Your So Sillea. The last time she raced at Ellis Park they went even worse. But if Your So Sillea runs to her current form – and there’s no obvious reason to believe she won’t – she’ll win the $125,000 Twin Bridges Stakes on Monday at Ellis.

Carded at six furlongs on dirt for older fillies and mares, the Twin Bridges drew a moderate field of eight. Your So Sillea ought to be favored, with Non Violence, the runner-up in this race a year ago, the second choice.

Your So Sillea, 18-4-7-0 to date, began her career two summers ago at Ellis finishing second in a maiden sprint. She flopped badly second out when stretched to a 1 1/2-turn Ellis mile, and in her other Ellis start, which came in June 2023, Your So Sillea finished a distant fourth as the favorite in a second-level allowance. That race marked the mare’s lone start over a wet track and is best ignored, according to Keeneland-based trainer Phil Sims.

“It rained right before, and it turned out to be kind of a weird race,” Sims said. “I think she’ll like the surface at Ellis just fine.”

Your So Sillea capped her 2023 campaign with a pace-and-fade fourth in the $300,000 Dream Supreme at Churchill Downs. She’s been a better horse than that during her three-start 2024 season, which began with a turf sprint that served mainly to shake winter rust off a mare who prefers dirt racing. Your So Sillea, by Lea, returned from that comeback run with a fine second behind established stakes sprinter Zeitlos at Churchill and on June 16 cleared her third allowance condition winning by a neck over a sharp Nom de Plume. Her two recent Beyer Speed Figures of 92 are the best she’s posted.

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“She’s a big filly and we’ve had to take our time with her. I think she’s finally come around to herself,” Sims said.

Jareth Loveberry, who has a win and two seconds in his three previous partnerships with Your So Sillea, regains the mount.

Non Violence, a 4-year-old trained by Bret Calhoun, came to a peak last summer at Ellis, winning a second-level allowance before contesting the pace and finishing second of five in the Twin Bridges. She failed to stay one mile Aug. 13 in the Groupie Doll Stakes, went to the sidelines, and came back from an extended break with a decidedly subpar showing May 27 at Lone Star Park, where she was beaten 11 lengths in the Memorial Day Sprint.

Non Violence did get away somewhat slowly that day but thereafter failed to muster her typical speed, though she did show faint signs of life from the three-sixteenths pole to the sixteenth pole before appearing to tire.

Amaretti, a lightly raced 5-year-old, to date has not been quite fast enough to handle Your So Sillea, but she has speed and the rail and could outrun her odds if loose on the lead.

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