Chicquita is a bay mare with no white markings, bred in Ireland by Ecurie des Monceaux & Skymarc Farm Inc. As a yearling in August 2011 the filly was put up for auction and sold for €600,000 to Badgers Bloodstock.

[4] Chicquita is the first foal of her dam Prudenzia who showed considerable ability in a brief racing career highlighted by a victory in the Listed Prix de la Seine in May 2008.

[8] Despite her fall she was then stepped up sharply in class for the Group 1 Prix de Diane at Chantilly Racecourse on 14 June in which she was ridden as at Saint-Cloud by Antoine Hamelin.

Chicquita was then sent to Ireland and moved up in distance for the Irish Oaks over one and a half miles at the Curragh Racecourse on 20 July, with the ride going to the experienced local jockey Johnny Murtagh.

She was bought for €6,000,000, a record for a horse sold at auction in Ireland,[12] by the bloodstock agents Peter & Ross Doyle, acting on behalf of John Magnier's Coolmore Stud organisation.

She ended her racing career with a trip to California for the Breeders' Cup Turf at Santa Anita Park on 1 November in which she faced top-class male opposition.

Ridden by Frankie Dettori and facing on a left-handed track for the first time since her three-year-old debut, she finished fifth of the twelve runners behind Main Sequence, Flintshire, Twilight Eclipse and Telescope.