Cy Fair Rebounds in Mamzelle Stakes, Returns to Top Form at Churchill Downs

Cy Fair did not merely rebound at Churchill Downs, she answered the only real question left about her: whether her 3-year-old season would match the promise of her Breeders’ Cup peak. The Not This Time filly did it the hard way Thursday in the seventh running of the $300,000 Mamzelle Stakes, settling off a sharp pace before uncorking a decisive stretch move to beat Slay the Day by a length in 1:01.90 for 5 1/2 furlongs on firm turf.

That mattered because the race was no soft landing. Cy Fair, the 3-5 favorite who paid $3.98 to win, was facing a live rematch after finishing third in the GIII Limestone Stakes at Keeneland on April 10, when she showed speed and got run down late. This time, with Irad Ortiz Jr. aboard from post 5 in a field that was reduced to nine starters after two scratches, George Weaver changed the script. Cy Fair sat behind fractions of 22.11 and 45.12, let the front-runners soften each other up, and then finished with more control than she had shown earlier in the spring.

The result restored the profile that made her one of the division’s most interesting turf sprinters last year. Cy Fair won her debut at Saratoga by 3 1/4 lengths on July 10, 2025, was second by a neck in the Bolton Landing Stakes, then captured the bet365 Algonquin at Woodbine before taking the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint at Del Mar in 56.02 on October 31. That victory made her only the second filly to win the race, gave Weaver his first Breeders’ Cup triumph, and added another major moment to Ortiz’s already crowded championship résumé.

Thursday’s score also carried real stakes-race weight. The Mamzelle was Race 11 on Churchill Downs’ 12-race Thurby card, went off at 6:26 p.m. ET, and came with a final value of race of $299,250. Cy Fair’s winning share was $178,800, a healthy return for a filly already purchased for $185,000 at the 2025 OBS April Sale out of the Niall Brennan Stables consignment. On a Churchill turf course rated firm, she was quick but not record-setting, still about a second off Nobals’ 1:00.96 course mark from May 24, 2025.

For Weaver’s barn, the Mamzelle suggested that Cy Fair is not just a one-race headline from the Breeders’ Cup, but a filly built to absorb pressure and answer it. Against Slay the Day, Hen Party and the rest of the 11-horse cast, she looked like a horse re-entering the top tier of the filly and mare turf sprint picture just as summer stakes racing starts to sharpen.