As a Grade 2 winner, Cilla is one of the top Louisiana-breds in training, and she will help usher in the Louisiana Premier Day card of stakes Saturday at Delta Downs. Cilla runs in the $100,000 Matron, which is the first of six divisional stakes for Louisiana-breds. Purses for the races total $675,000. Delta is showcasing the stakes on an 11-race card that features a reduced takeout of 12 percent on pick four and pick five wagers. There also is a $50,000 minimum guaranteed pool on the late pick four, which runs on races 8-11 and includes the $150,000 Championship. Delta has a special first post of 12 p.m. Central. Cilla makes an appearance in the second race, facing fillies and mares over five furlongs. She is moving back into the Louisiana-bred ranks after winning the $75,000 Orleans at the same distance Jan. 7 at Delta. She equaled her career-best Beyer Speed Figure of 91. Last year at 3 she won the Grade 2 Prioress at six furlongs at Saratoga. :: For the first time ever, our premium past performances are free! Get free Formulator now! “I like the way she’s been doing,” said trainer Brett Brinkman. “She looks like a 4-year-old. She’s put on some maturity, and her weight is good and her attitude sure is good. Those are the things you want to see going up against these older mares.” Cilla, who is looking for the fourth stakes win of her career, will break from post 4 under Thomas Pompell. “I’d like to go a little farther,” Brinkman said. “I don’t think five-eighths is her best distance, but she’s obviously fast and it kind of lets horses get in front of her and I think she likes that. She likes a target.” Brinkman not only trains Cilla, he also bred the filly with owner Dale Ladner. Cilla is by California Chrome and out of Sittin At the Bar, a past winner of the Matron for Ladner and Brinkman who overall won nine stakes and earned $705,896. Brinkman said one reason the mating got the nod was the common link of the great race and broodmare Numbered Account in the pedigrees of Cilla’s sire and dam. “Breeding blue hen mares on top and bottom has been pretty successful as a whole,” he said. “When you can put them together with a sire and a dam, you figure take swing at it and see. “And, the Pulpit line seems to click with [Sittin At the Bar],” Brinkman added of California Chrome, who is by Lucky Pulpit, a son of Pulpit. “So taking all that into account, and the fact that he’s a handsome horse – and you can’t deny he’s a racehorse – we took a shot.” The result has been a top Louisiana-bred who is 6 for 13 with earnings of more than $400,000. Starlet Stakes Free Like a Girl, a four-time stakes winner, is launching her 3-year-old season in the $100,000 Starlet. The race will be run at a mile. Free Like a Girl enters off a win over six furlongs in the $109,000 fillies division of the Louisiana Futurity on Dec. 31 at Fair Grounds. “I’m actually feeling better about this mile than the six furlongs,” said Chasey Deville Pomier, who co-owns and trains Free Like a Girl. “She seems to like two turns. And she likes this track, so that helps.” Free Like a Girl is 2 for 2 at Delta, where she won the $100,000 Louisiana Jewel by more than 18 lengths Oct. 22 and returned to capture the $100,000 My Trusty Cat over open company at this distance Nov. 19. Those two starts were at two turns. Pedro Cotto Jr. has the mount from post 5. “She likes being right off the pace and making a run at them,” said Pomier. Prince Stakes Unified Report, who is 2 for 2 against Louisiana-breds, is back at Delta for the $100,000 Prince. It’s for 3-year-olds at a mile. Earlier in the meet, Unified Report won his two-turn and stakes debut in the $100,000 Louisiana Legacy. “We’re real excited about running him on Saturday,” said trainer Dallas Stewart. Unified Report won a stakes at Fair Grounds, and exits his first loss, an eighth-place finish in that track’s Grade 3 Lecomte on Jan. 22. “He’s back in Louisiana-bred company, and ought to be fine,” Stewart said. “He was 3 for 3 before that. He’s a beautiful horse, got a lot of heart.” Gerard Melancon has the mount for Valene Farms from post 6. ◗ Jax Man makes his second start since June when he faces Langs Day and Izzy’s Baby Boy, who are stakes winner at the meet, in the Championship. ◗ Net a Bear, a winner of four of her last five starts, including three stakes, goes in the $125,000 Distaff. ◗ Bertie’s Galaxy heads the $100,000 Sprint, a race he was second in last year when facing Grade 1 winner No Parole.