BY GULFSTREAM PARK PRESS OFFICE

Amy Dunne, Caitlin Dunne, Brenda Miley, Jean Wilkinson, Hoffman Family Racing, Tranquility Lake Farm, Maury Harrington and Christopher Harrington’s Lennilu kicked off her season in style with a popular victory in Sunday’s $120,000 Leinster Melody of Colors for 3-year-old fillies at Gulfstream Park.

Ridden by Luis Saez for trainer Patrick Biancone, Lennilu covered five furlongs over a turf course rated good in :56.26 for her fifth win from seven career starts and fourth in a stakes. Three of her four stakes wins have come on the grass at Gulfstream, where she is undefeated in three lifetime races.

Mystical Belle, a winner of two straight on the all-weather course trying turf for the first time, broke alertly and was sent to the lead by jockey Tyler Gaffalione, leading trough a quarter-mile in :21.28 while racing in the two path. Viable Asset, unbeaten in two starts and making her stakes debut, pressed in second along the rail with Lennilu in the clear three wide in third.

The half went in :43.87 with Mystical Belle clinging to a short lead after straightening for home, but Lennilu asserted her class and wore down the longshot leader, edging clear late to win by three-quarters of a length.

Mystical Belle held second, followed by Florida-bred Tizasweetlady, at odds of 73-1, Florida-bred Viable Asset, Jetty’s Home, Canton, I Love Giraffes and Finch. Secane and Rockyta were scratched.

Lennilu paid $2.80 to win.

Lennilu ran six times as a 2-year-old, winning Gulfstream’s Royal Palm Juvenile Fillies in her second start last spring to earn an automatic berth in the Queen Mary (G2) at Royal Ascot where she ran third, beaten less than two lengths by subsequent Group 1 winner True Love.

She returned to win the Desert Vixen division of the Florida Sire Stakes series over Gulfstream’s main track in September, then was back on turf to beat the boys in the Hollywood Beach sprinting five furlongs. Sunday was her first race since finishing seventh in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint, also against males, Oct. 31.

“It was good,” Biancone said of Sunday’s win. “It was a long layoff. We decided to give her plenty of time to grow because she started early in April [2025]. She’s back. I think she’s a little better than she was last year.”

Next up for Lennilu is the five-and-a-half-furlong Limestone (G3) April 10 at Keeneland, Biancone said.

Lennilu is by Leinster out of Lulu’s Pom Pom, by Pomeroy and was bred in Florida by Helen and Joseph Barbazon.