Lennilu hopes surface holds for 3-year-old debut
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HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Patrick Biancone couldn’t be more excited about getting his multiple stakes winner Lennilu’s 3-year-old campaign started Sunday at Gulfstream Park. What has tempered that enthusiasm a bit has been the recent weather, which has dumped inches upon inches of rain over the local area this past week.
Lennilu is scheduled to make her return in the $125,000 Melody of Colors Stakes for 3-year-old fillies, a race in which she figures to be an overwhelming favorite if it goes as carded at five furlongs on turf. But the possibility of the race being switched to the Tapeta course because of all that rain could pose a dilemma for Biancone, whose filly has neither raced nor trained over a synthetic surface.
Lennilu was an instant sensation at 2, launching her career with a victory over a sloppy main track at Keeneland and a very impressive 3 3/4-length triumph making her turf debut in the Royal Palm Juvenile Fillies here five weeks later.
Lennilu earned herself a trip to Royal Ascot and an automatic berth in the Group 2 Queen Mary Stakes by virtue of her win in the Royal Palm. She more than held her own against Europe’s best that day, finishing third, beaten less than two lengths by True Love. That victor flattered Lennilu’s effort when becoming a Group 1 winner for trainer Aidan O’Brien three months later at Newmarket.
Lennilu returned to the United States and ran three more times at 2. She won the Desert Vixen division of the Florida Sire Series on dirt and the Hollywood Beach Stakes on turf locally before completing the year with a seventh-place finish against males in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint at Del Mar.
“The Breeders’ Cup was a throw-out because she was in heat,” Biancone recalled. “She ran flat early and had no gas late. We gave her a nice break after that to have her fresh for her 3-year-old campaign. She’s been training very well for her comeback, and she should run very well.”
That statement comes under the assumption that the Melody of Colors will be run on grass.
“If they took the race off the turf and moved it to the dirt, I’d still love my chances,” Biancone said. “She’s won on fast and sloppy main tracks already. But being it would be Tapeta, well, you just never know, although I think she’ll still run anyway.”
Biancone added that he is trying “to keep on the schedule we’ve got mapped out for her right now, which is to take her next month to Keeneland for the race on the 10th [the Grade 3 Limestone], and then, if all goes well, possibly go back to Ascot again in June.”
Biancone has secured the services of Luis Saez, who rode Lennilu to a pair of victories and her third-place finish at Ascot last season and went up to Palm Meadows to work her five furlongs in 58 seconds flat over the turf March 19.
“Luis came in to work her and was very happy with her,” Biancone said.
Lennilu will break from the rail while taking on nine potential rivals in the Melody of Colors. Four are trained by Saffie Joseph Jr., including Mystical Belle, whose chances would improve greatly if the race was decided on the Tapeta track after closing out her 2-year-old season with a pair of gate-to-wire victories over the synthetic surface. The most recent came Nov. 16, an effort for which she was awarded a 75 Beyer Speed Figure.
Like Mystical Belle, none of Joseph’s other three entrants have ever run on turf. That trio includes the multiple stakes-placed Secane, along with maiden winners Canton and Jetty’s Home. Joseph said at least three of his four fillies will start, with Secane to possibly be held for another race here next weekend.
The connections of Tizasweetlady also are likely rooting for a change of surface. Tizasweetlady registered her best performance to date, a 1 1/4-length victory against Florida-bred entry-level allowance rivals, over Gulfstream’s Tapeta track, for which she earned an 80 Beyer.
Should the main event go as scheduled, the undefeated Viable Asset, an impressive allowance winner on the grass in her most recent start, figures to prove a key player, along with last-out turf graduates I Love Giraffes, Finch, and Rockyta.
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