Cilla returning to open company following Louisiana Premier Matron score
Grade 2 winner Cilla is poised to return to open company following her Saturday victory in the $100,000 Louisiana Premier Matron at Delta Downs.
Trainer Brett Brinkman said Monday that the multiple stakes winner has options at Oaklawn Park and Keeneland. She is based at Fair Grounds.
“We’re going to keep her sprinting, and our objective is to try to get a couple of more graded stakes wins or graded stakes-placings behind her if possible,” said Brinkman, who trains Cilla for Dale Ladner.
Brinkman said Cilla would be nominated to the Grade 1, $500,000 Madison on April 9 at Keeneland. Her other immediate option is the $200,000 Carousel, a six-furlong race for fillies and mares April 2 at Oaklawn.
“That’s high on our list at the moment,” Brinkman said of the Carousel.
Later in the year, Brinkman said the intent is to race Cilla on the East Coast. Last year, she won the Grade 2 Prioress at Saratoga and the Blue Sparkler at Monmouth Park.
Cilla was winning her second straight stakes in the Matron. In her prior start, she captured the $75,000 Orleans at Delta.
The inspiration for Cilla’s name is the “pet name” Elvis Presley called his wife, Priscilla, Brinkman said.
“Mr. Ladner was a huge Elvis fan,” Brinkman said. “We kind of like one-word names. He likes to use things in his life that had some meaning. He had Unitas, a nice stakes horse. He thought Johnny Unitas was a great quarterback. He kind of uses those things that were an influence in his life and kind of meant something to him.”
The Matron was one of six stakes on an 11-race card Saturday at Delta. The track handled $3,130,427 from all sources. Delta officials Chris Warren and Don Stevens said it was the highest Premier Day handle dating back to at least 2011 and Delta’s highest handle since the $3.8 million bet on Delta Downs Jackpot Day in 2016.