BROCK SHERIDAN
Facing colts and geldings for the first time, Florida-bred Lennilu was up to the task with authority producing a two-and-three-quarters-lengths victory in the $75,000 Leinster Hollywood Beach Stakes at Gulfstream Park Saturday. Let go as the 9-5 second choice after a taxing nose victory in the $100,000 FTBOA Florida Sire Stakes Desert Vixen going six-furlongs on dirt three weeks earlier, Lennilu and jockey Jonathan Ocasio blew past 3-2 favorite and fellow Florida-bred Monster in mid-stretch to win going away.
Trainer Patrick Biancone had said for some time the Breeders’ Cup was the target for Lennilu and Saturday’s victory cemented his plans.
“She has a good month until the big race. We’ll fly her there by the 23rd of October and we’ll be ready,” Biancone said.
Lennilu broke on top from post eight but was quickly passed by Monster from post nine. Monster promptly sprinted to a length-and-a-half lead with Street Player second on the rail as Lennilu raced just to his outside in third for the run to the turn. Monster maintained daylight with five-sixteenths to run as Lennilu began closing in from second with a three-wide move as Street Player could not keep up in third.
Monster had a narrow lead on Lennilu turning for home after a :20.74 first quarter mile and the two speedsters locked up at top of the stretch. Lennilu put away Monster inside the final sixteenth then quickly drew clear under the wire as The Princess Bro, a four-length maiden winner on grass in her only start and the only other filly in the race, made a big late run to take second. Monster finished a length-and-a-half farther back in third follow in order by Itza Lock, Florida-breds Squire and Zevi’s Zone, then Timeless Victory, Florida-bred Win N Juice and Street Player.
“We were expecting exactly these results,” Ocasio said. “She was very relaxed the whole way. She broke excellent and we just sat behind the speed. At the three-eighths pole, I asked her, and she responded.”
Lennilu paid $5.80 to win.
“She’s a machine,” trainer Patrick Biancone said. “She was cruising. [Monster] is fast. I told [Ocasio] to let him go. I didn’t think she would catch him so easy. She was cruising. She’s a lovely filly.”
Lennilu has won four of five career starts with one third, that coming in the Group 2 Queen Mary Stakes behind winner True Love (Ire) at Royal Ascot on June 18. True Love has since won two of three with a second including a victory in the Group 1 Tattersalls Sceptre Sessions Cheveley Park Stakes at Newmarket Saturday.
“In England today, the filly who beat her in won a Group 1. She’s the best 2-year-old in Europe,” Biancone said. “This will set [Lennilu] up perfectly for Del Mar.”
Lennilu broke her maiden over a sloppy four-and-a-half furlongs on April 6, taking a maiden special weight for fillies by a length. She then dominated the $100,000 Royal Palm Juvenile Fillies, winning by three-and-three-quarters lengths going five furlongs on the turf at Gulfstream on May 10, earning her invitation and travel stipend to Royal Ascot.
Owned by Amy Dunne, Caitlin Dunne, Brenda Miley, Jean Wilkinson, Hoffman Family Racing LLC, Tranquility Lake Farms LLC, Maury Harrington and Christopher Harrington, Lennilu earned $43,200 for winning the Hollywood Beach, pushing her career bankroll to $206,489.
Lennilu was a $23,000 yearling purchase by Glencrest Farm out of Lisa McGreevy’s Abbie Road Farm consignment at the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Mixed Sale in January of 2024.
Bred in Florida by Helen and Joseph Barbazon of Morriston, Fla., Lennilu is by Pleasant Acres Stallions’ hot freshman sire Leinster out of Lulu’s Pom Pom, by Pomeroy. Lennilu is the only winner from two starters and four foals for Lulu’s Pom Pom, who was bred back to Leinster in 2025.
Lennilu is the 65th Florida-bred to win an open black-type stakes in 2025–eclipsing the 64 stakes victories by Florida-breds in all of 2024.
Return to the September 27 issue of Wire to Wire
