Cilla thrust Louisana-breds into the spotlight with her gritty upset victory in the Sept. 4 Prioress Stakes (G2) at Saratoga Race Course. The daughter of California Chrome hails from Brett Brinkman's farm in Cajun country, Louisiana, where Brinkman bred, raised, and broke the filly that would provide him with one of the biggest thrills of his career.
Brinkman, the co-owner, co-breeder, and trainer of Cilla who operates Le Mesa Stallions in Carencro, La., spoke with BloodHorse MarketWatch about his early beginnings in the industry, acquiring Cilla's dam, the successful race mare Sittin At the Bar, and why he believes the Louisiana Thoroughbred Breeders Association program offers breeders significant value on the racetrack.
MarketWatch: Where are you from and how did you get involved with racehorses?
Brett Brinkman: I'm originally from Louisiana. Racehorses were a family thing. My grandfather trained horses at Evangeline Downs. Quarter and Thoroughbreds. I had an uncle that was a blacksmith at the racetrack and then my aunt and uncle ran a large farm in Ocala and I would go there every summer and spend the summer and work with them. One summer I just stayed and then grew up there, finished school there, went to college, just made my life in Florida. After college I got out and worked for several different people in the business down there before I saw the opportunity in Louisiana to start my own farm.
MW: And that's when you started Le Mesa Stallions?
BB: Yes. That was about 15 years ago; I left Florida to come to Louisiana. I've gotten out of the stallion business but I still do stand Yankee Gentleman at the farm. He's in the twilight of his career but I still send mares to him. It's not so much of a commercial operation for me anymore. I'm more into raising babies and breaking my own babies at the farm. I keep about 8 broodmares at the farm, and we primarily breed them to race.
MW: Were you involved with Cilla's early training at the farm?
BB: Cilla's been in our possession every step of the way. She was a very smart young horse. Easy to be around. She never had a bad day. She was always a willing participant. We brought her along slow. In her first start, she probably should've won. I blame myself for that because I only had her 80% ready. But then she came back and ran her 'A' game when she broke her maiden.
MW: How did it feel to see Cilla win a graded stakes at Saratoga?
BB: It was thrilling. It was a dream come true. I was there in person. I shipped her up from Delaware Park a few days ahead of time and then drove up to watch her run.
MW: So not only are you the co-breeder and co-owner of Cilla with Dale Ladner, but you broke her and train her as well. You truly define the meaning of "doing it all."
BB: That was my uncle's intention when I came up under him. If you couldn't do it all, you couldn't leave the farm.
MW: I noticed Cilla broke her maiden at Delaware Park. Do you typically send a string of horses to the Northeast area? Why train up here as opposed to Louisiana?
BB: I do keep 14 or 15 in training in Louisiana with other trainers but I ship a small string up to Delaware in the summer time. I run them in my name in Delaware. My fiance's father is the president of the Horsemen's Association there so it gives her a chance to come home and see her family. We can get some of our better horses out of the state for some part of the time as well. It gets brutally hot down here in Louisiana in the summertime so it gives the horses a chance to beat the heat and then try their hand against open company to see how they stack up. I love it up there; it's a great spot.
MW: You were also listed as the trainer for Cilla's dam, Sittin At the Bar, who went onto become a pretty successful Louisana-bred racehorse. What's the story behind her?
BB: Sittin At the Bar was the first horse Mr. Ladner and I purchased together. We bought her as a yearling at the breeders sale in Louisiana. She was from the first crop of Into Mischief . We got her for $30,000 out of the sale and she turned into a pretty nice state-bred filly. She earned $700,000 at the time but the Louisiana Thoroughbred Breeders offered a bonus for horses coming out of that sale. You had to win the 2-year-old race on Louisiana Champions Day in December at Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots, and then you had to come back at the end of the meet as a 3-year-old in a race going two turns, and then you had to go to Louisiana Downs and win another two-turn race, and then you would win a $300,000 bonus. And she's the only horse in several years that ever accomplished it. She won all three races and the $300,000 bonus. That was the feather in her cap.
MW: And then she went onto produce three stakes winners as a broodmare.
BB: She's just been phenomenal in her next career (as a broodmare). A lot of people don't know this but her actual first foal was a Quarter Horse, when we were forced to retire her pretty late in the breeding season and we weren't able to breed her to a stallion of our choosing. We didn't want to miss the chance to see a foal out of her so we bred her to a running Louisiana Quarter Horse. We took the embryo out of her and placed it in a donor mare so that she would be open the next year to breed to a Thoroughbred. We had a Louisiana Quarter Horse baby out of her. That foal ended up going on to win four or five races running against Quarter Horses.
MW: Why did you choose to breed Sittin At the Bar to California Chrome?
BB: She crosses well to the Pulpit line but more importantly I doubled up Numbered Account in the sire's pedigree and the broodmare's pedigree by breeding her to California Chorme. That's a blue hen mare and that's a proven line that works. So that's why we went to him. The California Chromes look like they are having some success on the grass. I've had several people comment on how she's getting it done on the dirt while everyone else seems to be doing their best on the turf.
MW: Who did you breed Sittin At the Bar to this past season?
BB: She was bred to Frosted . Right now she's in Versailles, Ky., at Orchard Park Farm.
MW: What are your hopes for the Louisiana breeding program? Do you see it going in a positive direction?
BB: I actually sit on the board of the Louisiana Thoroughbred Breeders Association down here. We've suffered like everybody else in the state-bred programs from other states in the past few years. But I think our racing is very solid. We have year-round racing here and we have the accredited program where you can run against restricted Louisiana-bred horses. That gives our horses a chance to prove themselves and see who they are. I think the rewards for breeders are pretty good and you can do it with minimal expenditures compared to other state-bred programs. I have friends from other state-bred programs and they tell me the costs, and it's never cheap, don't get me wrong, but it seems like we can get away with a little bit less expenditures here than in other states and still reward the owners on that end of it. With our race and purse structure the way it is we are paying 18-20% in breeders awards for running in-state and then averaging 8-10% out of state for first, second, or third. That's pretty good value for breeders foaling in state.
MW: And horses like Cilla prove that Louisiana-breds can compete against the best horses at a national level.
BB: Yes. Since a lot of the money for breeders and owners is here in state, many people won't run elsewhere. So you never get a shot to see (Louisiana-bred horses) names in lights very often. But if you look up and down the winners in Louisiana, though, there's a lot of horses that get claimed out of this jurisdiction and run out of state. Those horses can hold their own elsewhere and have good careers.
