BY BROCK SHERIDAN
Lennilu finished second but was placed first through the disqualification of Love Like Lucy in a Florida-bred exacta in Saturday’s $100,000 Game Face at Gulfstream Park. Love Like Lucy finished a neck in front of her rival in the six-furlong test for 3-year-old fillies but was placed second by the track stewards for interference at the top of the stretch.
Love Like Lucy and jockey Nik Juarez were quickest at the start from post five, promptly putting a length on Lennilu and rider Jonathan Ocasio on the rail. Love Like Lucy went the first quarter mile in :22.08 with Canton just off her outside hip in second and Lennilu tracking in third from a length-and-a-half back. Canton went by Love Like Lucy at the quarter pole but drifted out, allowing Love Like Lucy to cut the corner and get even turning for home. Lennilu then advanced and tried to split those two at the top of the stretch when Love Like Lucy drifted into her lane, forcing Ocasio to check Lennilu and take her outside of Canton. Love Like Lucy put away Canton inside the final sixteenth but Lennilu accelerated in the final yards, coming up just short as the two Florida-breds finished in 1:10.90 on the fast track. Canton was two-and-a-half lengths back in third followed by Florida-breds Dakota’s Lil Auror and Willow Case.
The stewards immediately called for an inquiry while Ocasio soon lodged a claim of foul against Juarez on Love Like Lucy. The judges ruled that Love Like Lucy came out on Lennilu at the head of the lane and placed Love Like Lucy second—giving Lennilu her second stakes victory in three starts this year.
Lennilu paid $2.60 to win as the 1-5 post time favorite. The $1 exacta with the two Florida-bred fillies paid $2.90.
“She came out running. They took my spot where I wanted to be, so I just sat on her and she’s a good filly. She responded to everything. I just waited for the best moment and in the stretch I tried to do the best I could. It got a little close there, but we got it,” Ocasio said.
Trained by Patrick Biancone for a large ownership group made up of Amy Dunne, Caitlin Dunne, Brenda Miley, Jean Wilkinson, Hoffman Family Racing, Tranquility Lake Farms, Maury Harrington and Christopher K. Harrington, Lennilu has won six of nine career starts including the $120,000 Melody of Colors going five furlongs on the turf at Gulfstream on March 22. She was fifth in the Grade 3 Limestone at five-and-a-half furlongs on the Keeneland turf on April 10. She is five-or-five at Gulfstream with her other two losses coming when seventh, but only five lengths behind winner Cy Fair, in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint at Del Mar and when second to True Love (Ire) in the Group 2 Queen Mary at Royal Ascot in Great Britain.
“She’s just a fighter. She likes to fight. Even when you bump her, she keeps coming,” Biancone said. “She’s very brave. She’s three-for-three on the dirt and hopefully she can improve. I think when we go a bit longer, like seven furlongs, she’ll be better.”
It was her second career stakes victory at six furlongs on the Gulfstream Park main track along with the $100,000 FTBOA Desert Vixen, first leg of the Florida Sire Stakes on September 6. Last year on the Guflstream turf, she also won the $100,000 Royal Palm Juvenile Fillies at five furlongs in May and the $75,000 Hollywood Beach going five-and-a-half furlongs in September. Lennilu earned $57,500 to increase her career bankroll to $358,754.
Lennilu was a $23,000 purchase by Glencrest Farm out of Lisa McGreevy’s Abbie Road Farm consignment at the 2024 Ocala Breeders’ Sales Winter Mixed Sale.
Bred in Florida by Helen and Joseph Barbazon of Morriston, Lennilu is by Leinster out of the winning Pomeroy mare Lulu’s Pom Pom. Lennilu is the only winner from two starters and four foals for Lulu’s Pom Pom, who was bred to Leinster in 2025.
“I think we have [a stakes] race [with similar conditions] here in about a month. If [Lennilu] wins that maybe we may go to a big race,” Biancone said.
Return to the May 23 issue of Wire to Wire
