Irad Ortiz Jr. Wraps Up Meet with Riding Title in Hand

Lennilu Opens Season with Popular Melody of Colors Win
Thursday’s Rainbow 6 Jackpot Pool Estimated at $225,000

HALLANDALE BEACH, FL – Though he will spend the final weekend of the 2025-2026 Championship Meet honoring out of town commitments, jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. put the finishing touches on an expected record-extending seventh riding title Sunday at Gulfstream Park.

The 33-year-old Ortiz won aboard Brian Lynch-trained favorite Zakinthos ($4.60) in Race 5, a maiden special weight for 3-year-olds, and finished the country’s premier winter meet with 82 victories from 312 mounts, holding a 19-win lead over runner-up Tyler Gaffalione (408 mounts) with just four racing days remaining.

It will be the fourth consecutive Championship Meet riding title for Ortiz, one shy of the track record set by Hall of Famer Javier Castellano between 2011-2012 and 2015-2016, and seventh overall. Last winter, Ortiz became the first jockey to win the riding title for a sixth time.

“I’m happy. It’s been a great meet,” Ortiz said. “I’m thankful for the huge support as always from all the trainers and owners. I’m happy to have been able to win another title here. It’s amazing. My agent does a great job. I’m just happy and glad to be here.”

Represented by Steve Rushing, Ortiz will finish second to Gaffalione with $3.94 million in purses earned at the Championship Meet. Among his victories are six stakes including the Coolmore Fountain of Youth (G2) and Mucho Macho Man with Commandment, Forward Gal (G3) with On Time Girl and Fort Lauderdale (G3) with Wolfie’s Dynaghost.

On Dec. 13, Jose D’Angelo-trained White Claw Woman gave Ortiz his 1,000th Gulfstream Park winner. Already a five-time Eclipse Award winner, he finished second in balloting for 2025 despite leading the country with 351 wins and setting a North American record with $40,498,792 in purse earnings.

Ortiz missed action last weekend with a sore hip after his mount, A Moment a Love, veered after breaking from the gate and tried to jump the temporary inner rail March 12 at Gulfstream, throwing Ortiz to the turf. He returned to action Saturday at Turfway Park and Sunday was his first day back at Gulfstream.

“It’s a beautiful place to be in the wintertime. I love the track. I love the people. I love the people that run the track. I’ve been coming here for a lot of years and I love it all,” Ortiz said. “You have some good prep races and some nice young horses here to try to find the Derby winner. That’s where you start the dream, here at Gulfstream.”

Lennilu Opens Season with Popular Melody of Colors Win

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 $125,000 Leinster Melody of Colors for 3-year-old fillies at Gulfstream Park.

Ridden by Luis Saez for trainer Patrick Biancone, Lennilu ($2.80) covered five furlongs over a turf course rated good in 56.26 seconds 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 3-0 lifetime.

Mystical Belle, a winner of two straight on the all-weather Tapeta 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 seconds 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 seconds 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 73-1 longshot Tizasweetlady, Viable Asset, Jetty’s Home, Canton, I Love Giraffes and Finch. Secane and Rockyta were scratched.

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 5 ½-furlong Limestone (G3) April 10 at Keenland, Biancone said.

Thursday’s Rainbow 6 Jackpot Pool Estimated at $225,000

The 20-cent Rainbow 6 jackpot pool is estimated to reach $225,000 when live racing resumes Thursday to kick off the final weekend of the 2025-2026 Championship Meet.

Post time for the first of 10 races is 12:50 p.m.

The Rainbow 6 has gone unsolved for four consecutive racing days following multiple mandatory payouts of $3,359.02 March 15. Another mandatory payout is scheduled for closing day, March 29.

In the Rainbow 6, the jackpot pool is paid out only when there is a single unique ticket sold with all six winners. On days when there is no unique ticket, 70 percent of that day’s pool goes back to those bettors holding tickets with the most winners while 30 percent is carried over to the jackpot pool.

Thursday’s sequence spans Races 5-10 starting with a six-furlong claiming event for 3-year-olds and up. The feature comes in Race 8, an optional claiming allowance for older fillies and mares sprinting six furlongs led by Anna’s Promise, runner-up in last year’s Gulfstream Park Oaks (G2) that ran fifth in the Kentucky Oaks (G1).

There will also be a Super Hi 5 carryover of $8,493.06.

Who’s Hot: Hall of Fame jockey Javier Castellano, who won four races Saturday, added two more Sunday aboard Name It ($6.60) in Race 1 and Royal Poppy ($13.80) in Race 7 … Jockey Tyler Gaffalione rode back-to-back winners, Furys Charm ($3.60) in Race 2 and Sonic Surge ($3.60) in Race 3.