A bay filly standing 15.2 hands (62 inches, 157 cm) high, she was by Bryan G. and out of Satsuma by Bossuet.
Sired by the 1926 Kentucky Derby winner Bubbling Over, Hildene cost only $600 but became a "blue hen" mare (a prolific producer of quality offspring).
She won eleven of those races (including the final six in a row) and set a new record for earnings by a filly.
[6] After she easily won the Oaks Prep (now called the Eight Belles Stakes) she was considered for the Kentucky Derby but her stablemate Sir Gaylord was entered instead, then went lame and was unable to race.
The purse made her the world's leading money-winning filly or mare of all time, replacing Bewitch.
Her other wins included the Acorn, Mother Goose and Beldame Stakes, in which she broke Kelso's track record for nine furlongs at Aqueduct.
At age four, Cicada raced eight times and won four: the Columbiana, Sheepshead Bay, Vagrancy and Distaff handicaps.
Retired a second time, she foaled Cicada's Pride in 1966 (by Sir Gaylord) who won the 1968 Juvenile Stakes at Belmont Park.