GULFSTREAM PARK PRESS OFFICE (Edited)
HALLANDALE BEACH, FL – Multiple stakes-winning Florida-bred Lennilu, undefeated at Gulfstream Park and Group 2-placed last summer at Royal Ascot, will make her highly anticipated 3-year-old debut in Sunday’s $125,000 Leinster Melody of Colors with an eye on a return trip to England later this year.
Named for the Florida-bred winner of nine races including Gulfstream’s 2004 Bob Slater Stakes, the 11th running of the Melody of Colors for 3-year-old fillies is scheduled for five furlongs on the grass.
Lennilu is three-for-three over Gulfstream’s green and undefeated in four starts overall at her home track after graduating at first asking racing four-and-a-half furlongs on the dirt last spring at Keeneland. She won the $100,000 Royal Palm Juvenile Fillies at Gulfstream in May to earn an automatic berth to the prestigious Royal Ascot meet, where in the Group 2 Queen Mary she closed from 13th to finish third by less than two lengths behind subsequent Group 1-winner True Love.
The gray or roan filly, who fetched just $23,000 at 2024 Ocala Breeders’ Sales Winter Mixed Sale where she was consigned by Lisa McGreevy’s Abbie Road Farm, returned from abroad to win the $100,000 Desert Vixen division of the FTBOA Florida Sire Stakes series sprinting six furlongs on dirt. She then was back on the turf 21 days later for the $75,000 Hollywood Beach at five-and-a-half furlongs while facing males for the first time.
Lennilu was up against the boys again in the $920,000 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint (G1) on October 31 at Del Mar, pressing the early pace before fading to be seventh, her only time off the board in six career starts.
“The Breeders’ Cup was a throwout because she was in heat. She ran flat early and then she had no gas later on. It happens with fillies. Then we turned her out on the farm for nearly a month-and-a-half, maybe two months, and brought her back slowly. Right now, we are very happy,” trainer Patrick Biancone said. “She’s a tough filly. She’s tough and her mind is on racing.”
Lennilu did all of her preparation last year at Palm Meadows, Gulfstream’s satellite training facility in Palm Beach County, where she returned to the work tab in early February. She shows five breezes for her season opener, most recently going five furlongs in :58.15 March 13 under jockey Luis Saez, fastest of 30 horses.
“Luis came to work her and she went very good. He was very happy with her,” Biancone said. “She’s training very well. She had the bullet again and is just doing very good.”
Biancone has been pleased with the way Lennilu has responded to her extended vacation following a year that saw her race from coast to coast as well as make a trip overseas.
“She’s much stronger now. With the time, she matured a lot. She grew a little bit, not too much, but she’s very strong. She’s like a bull,” Biancone said. “We’re very excited to get her going.
“We gave her plenty of time because I think in the back of their mind, my client wants to go back to Ascot so you can’t run all winter and then run all summer,” he added. “It’s a good time to come back at the end of March and if everything goes right, we may go back there.”
The short-term plan for Lennilu following the Melody of Colors is a trip to Keeneland for the Limestone (G3) sprinting five-and-a-half furlongs on the grass April 10.
“She’s going to run here on [Sunday], go to Keeneland and then we’ll see where we go,” he said.
Lennilu has four wins with a third in six starts and earnings of $216,489 for an ownership group led by Amy and Caitlin Dunne.
She is out of Lulu’s Pom Pom, by Pomeroy and was bred in Florida by Helen and Joseph Barbazon.
Saez, aboard for each of her first two starts as well as the Breeders’ Cup, returns to ride Lennilu from the rail post.
Among the nine horses entered to challenge Lennilu is a pair of Florida-bred fillies in Viable Asset, trained by Fernando Abreu; and Tizasweetlady from the barn of Leon McKanas Jr.
Viable Asset is undefeated in two starts, including a two-length victory in a $35,000 optional claiming starter allowance going five furlongs in her grass debut on February 26.
Owned by Tom McCrocklin of Ocala, Viable Asset has earned $36,600 in her two starts.
She is by Neolithic, who stands in Florida at Pleasant Acres Stallions, out of Noble Intrigue, by Noble Mission. The chestnut filly was bred in Florida by Mike Whieldon.
Viable Asset has jockey Joel Rosario and post three.
Tizasweetlady has won two of seven career starts including a first level allowance race going five-and-a-half furlongs on the Gulfstream all-weather course on January 30. She is co-owned by breeder Four Horsemen Racing Stable with Prostar 10 Stables and has earned $64,350.
In one start since the allowance victory, Tizasweetlady was fifth in the $122,000 Any Limit going six furlongs on the main track. She returns to grass where she was sixth in a first level allowance race going five furlongs in December.
Tizasweetlady is by Sweetontheladies out of Tizablizzard, by Tizway.
She breaks from post two with Horacio Karamanos in the irons.
Rounding out the field for the Melody of Colors are Mystical Belle with Tyler Gaffailione up, John Velazquez rides Secane, Rockyta has Jose Morelos taking the racing assignment, Micah Husbands takes the call on Finch, I Love Giraffes will have Edgard Zayas in the saddle, Irad Ortiz Jr. guides Canton and Dylan Davis will be in the saddle on Jetty’s Home.
— Brock Sheridan contributed to this article
Return to the March 20 issue of Wire to Wire
