The trainers Phil Sims and Brad Cox have one-syllable given names and surnames. Both were born and raised in Kentucky, Cox in Louisville and Sims north of Lexington. Divergence between the two comes with regard to volume of racehorses. Sims through Oct. 22 had nine winners this year. That’s a good three-day span for Cox, who comes into the week with 209 winners in 2023.
Cox and Sims send out the principal combatants in the featured third race Thursday at Keeneland, a third-level dirt-sprint allowance restricted to females and open to $100,000 claimers. The Cox-trained Olga Isabel is the 6-5 morning-line favorite in the 6 1/2-furlong race, which would make the Sims-trained Your So Sillea a value play in this six-runner field.
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There’s little separating the 4-year-old fillies. Olga Isabel raced twice at Keeneland last fall while trained by Gustavo Delgado, getting disqualified from a first-level allowance win on Oct. 7, then finishing a distant second as the odds-on favorite in the same kind of race about three weeks later.
Olga Isabel didn’t start again until July, coming back for the Cox barn to clear her first allowance condition in a truncated two-turn mile at Ellis Park. She won over the same trip facing second-level allowance foes Aug. 30 at Saratoga. Watch that last race and it’s clear to see why Cox cuts this filly back to a sprint; well clear with a furlong to race, Olga Isabel staggered to the finish and was saved by the wire from losing to oncoming Tough Street, a horse of no great accomplishment.
Your So Sillea also has found Keeneland success, winning a first-level allowance a year ago and finishing second by a neck to the good filly Tarabi this past spring. Like Olga Isabel, Your So Sillea exits a second-level allowance score. Hers came Sept. 30 at Churchill Downs over this 6 1/2-furlong trip, Your So Sillea’s first start in three months. Keeneland is Your So Sillea’s home track. Give her and jockey Jareth Loveberry the edge on Olga Isabel and Tyler Gaffalione in the Thursday feature.
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