Next Stop Del Mar for G1 BC Juvenile Turf Sprint Oct. 31
BY GULFSTREAM PARK PRESS OFFICE
HALLANDALE BEACH, FL – Rising Florida-bred star Lennilu exited her dominating length-and-three-quarters romp in Saturday’s $75,000 Leinster Hollywood Beach at Gulfstream Park in good order.
“She’s doing very good,” trainer Patrick Biancone said Sunday morning from his stable at Palm Meadows. “Perfect.”
Lennilu stalked Monster into the stretch before breezing by the 3-2 favorite to win the five-furlong turf stakes for juveniles going away as the 9-5 second choice. The mighty daughter of race sponsor Leinster ran five furlongs in :54.97 on the way to her third stakes victory and fourth win in five starts. Her only loss came in a third-place finish in the Group 2 Queen Mary at Royal Ascot won by Aidan O’Brien-trained True Love (Ire), who happened to win the Group 1 Tattersalls Sceptre Sessions Cheveley Park Stakes at Great Britain’s Newmarket earlier in the day Saturday.
Biancone confirmed Lennilu will be pointed toward the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint (Grade 1) at Del Mar Thoroughbred Club on Oct. 31. After beating the boys in the Hollywood Beach, she’ll take them on again in the five-furlong Juvenile Turf Sprint rather than run against fillies in the one-mile John Deere Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf (G1) the same day.
“After the Queen Mary, I said we would give her some time to recover and get her ready for the Breeders’ Cup [Juvenile Turf] Sprint—and here we are,” said Biancone, whose multiple stakes-winning filly earned a ‘Win & You’re In’ berth in the five-furlong Queen Mary with a victory in the $100,000 Royal Palm Juvenile Fillies Turf going five furlongs at Gulfstream May 10.
In addition to notching stakes wins in the Royal Palm Juvenile Turf and the Leinster Hollywood Beach, Lennilu prepped for Saturday’s return to turf with a game victory in the $100,000 Desert Vixen, the six-furlong first leg of the FTBOA Florida Sires Stakes series on dirt.
Lennilu’s stablemate Squire came out of his fifth-place finish in the Hollywood Beach in good order.
“Squire came out good, but he’s just not as good, and he wants a little more distance,” Biancone said of the son of Leinster, whose only turf start from his three previous races was a second-place finish in the Royal Palm Juvenile.
