Lennilu Ready to Open Sophomore Season in Melody of Colors

Trainer Patrick Biancone: ‘She’s Tough, and Her Mind is on Racing’

HALLANDALE BEACH, FL – Multiple stakes-winning filly Lennilu, undefeated at Gulfstream Park and Group 2-placed last summer at Royal Ascot, will make her highly anticipated 3-year-old debut with an eye on a return trip to England in Sunday’s $125,000 Leinster Melody of Colors.

Named for the Florida-bred winner of nine races including Gulfstream’s 2004 Bob Slater Stakes, the 11th running of the Melody of Colors for 3-year-old fillies scheduled for five furlongs on the grass is the headliner on a 10-race program that begins at 12:50 p.m.

Campaigned by an ownership group led by Amy and Caitlin Dunne, Lennilu is a Florida-bred daughter of Leinster, who was a four-time graded-stakes winner including the 2021 Gulfstream Park Turf Sprint (G3) and emerging second-year sire that has also produced stakes-placed Monster, Squire, Laigina and Bronze Bullet.

Lennilu is 3-0 over Gulfstream’s grass course and 4-0 overall at her home track after graduating at first asking sprinting 4 ½ furlongs on the dirt last spring at Keeneland. She won the 2025 Royal Palm Juvenile Fillies at Gulfstream to earn an automatic berth to the prestigious Royal Ascot meet, where she closed from 13th to finish third by less than two lengths behind subsequent Group 1 winner True Love in the Queen Mary Stakes (G2).

The gray or roan filly, who fetched just $23,000 at OBS’ 2024 winter mixed sale, returned from abroad to win the Desert Vixen division of the Florida Sire Stakes series sprinting six furlongs on dirt then was back on the turf for the five-furlong Hollywood Beach just 21 days later while facing males for the first time.

Lennilu was up against the boys again in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint (G1) Oct. 31, pressing the early pace before fading to be seventh, her only time off the board in six career starts.

“The Breeders’ Cup was a throwout because she was in heat. She ran flat early and then she had no gas later on. It happens with fillies. Then we turned her out on the farm for nearly a month and a half, maybe two months, and brought her back slowly. Right now we are very happy,” trainer Patrick Biancone said. “She’s a tough filly. She’s tough, and her mind is on racing.”

Lennilu did all of her preparation last year at Palm Meadows, Gulfstream’s satellite training facility in Palm Beach County, where she returned to the work tab in early February. She shows five breezes for her season opener, most recently going five furlongs in 58.15 seconds March 13 under jockey Luis Saez, fastest of 30 horses.

“Luis came to work her and she went very good. He was very happy with her,” Biancone said. “She’s training very well. She had the bullet again and is just doing very good.”

Biancone has been pleased with the way Lennilu has responded to her extended vacation following a year that saw her race from coast to coast as well as make a trip overseas.

“She’s much stronger now. With the time, she matured a lot. She grew a little bit, not too much, but she’s very strong. She’s like a bull,” Biancone said. “We’re very excited to get her going.

“We gave her plenty of time because I think in the back of their mind, my client wants to go back to Ascot so you can’t run all winter and then run all summer,” he added. “It’s a good time to come back at the end of March and if everything goes right, we may go back there.”

The short-term plan for Lennilu following the Melody of Colors is a trip to Keeneland for the Limestone (G3) sprinting 5 ½ furlongs on the grass April 10.

“She’s going to run here on [Sunday], go to Keeneland and then we’ll see where we go,” he said.

Saez, aboard for each of her first two starts as well as the Breeders’ Cup, returns to ride Lennilu from the rail post.

Among the nine horses entered to challenge Lennilu is a quartet from trainer Saffie Joseph Jr., poised to win his fourth consecutive Championship Meet title and 15th straight overall at Gulfstream – Canton, Jetty’s Home, Mystical Belle and Secane.

Each of the four have yet to race on turf though MyRacehorse, PT Racing, Clay Sides and John Reinhardt’s Mystical Belle (Post 4) has won each of her last two races, both on Gulfstream’s all-weather Tapeta course, the most recent coming in a 5 ½-furlong optional claimer Nov. 16.

Final Furlong Farm and Madaket Stables’ Secane (Post 5) is twice stakes-placed, having run third in the Nov. 6 Tempted at Aqueduct and Gulfstream’s Jan. 1 Cash Run, both going one mile, and exits a seventh in the seven-furlong Forward Gal (G3) Jan. 31. Daniel Alonso and Miller Racing’s Jetty’s Home (Post 10) was sixth in the Cash Run and is 5-1-2-1 overall, while Jackpot Farm’s Canton (Post 9) graduated second time out Nov. 30 and was third in a 6 ½-furlong optional claiming allowance Jan. 3 last time out.

Tom McCrocklin’s Viable Asset (Post 3) takes an unblemished 2-0 record into the Melody of Colors, each of her wins coming at Gulfstream for trainer Fernando Abreu. After going unraced at 2, the daughter of millionaire Neolithic captured a six-furlong maiden claimer on the main track Jan. 8 and followed up with a front-running two-length score going five furlongs on the grass Feb. 26.

Also exiting last-out wins are Finch, I Love Giraffes and Rockyta. Big Lick Farm homebred Finch (Post 7) came from off the pace for a 1 ¼-length decision Sept. 5 on the Colonial Downs turf in her only start, while Starry Night Racing’s Rockyta (Post 6) was a rallying half-length victor of a five-furlong maiden claimer on the Gulfstream turf Feb. 8.

Gold Square’s I Love Giraffes (Post 8) debuted with a 1 ¾-length rail-skimming victory at the course and distance Feb. 14, rating in mid-pack before taking over inside the eighth pole and drawing clear.

“We’re proud of her. She ran a pretty good race first time out. There was an allowance race coming back in 12 days which was a little quick, and this kind of looked like the best option before leaving Florida,” trainer Chad Summers said. “Obviously with Lennilu it’s going to be a big ask [but] if you can get any kind of black type with fillies it’s a big deal.”

Summers purchased I Love Giraffes on behalf of owner Al Gold out of Keeneland’s September 2024 yearling sale for $200,000. Her sire, Charlatan, was a two-time Grade 1 winner on dirt that has produced such horses as March 8 Santa Ysabel (G3) winner Forced Entry and Wesley Ward-trained Arbiter, undefeated in two starts and entered in Saturday’s Texas Glitter on the Gulfstream turf.

“First crop of Charlatan. We thought he’d make it as a stallion. It looked like we were going to be very wrong last year, but it looks like we’re going to be proven right this year. He’s in the top two of the second crop stallions right now,” Summers said. “I’m not sure where all his grass influence came from at this point but there’s been a lot of grass winners from Charlatan. Wesley Ward has a nice one that’s running in the Texas Glitter on Saturday. She was an athletic type out of a young family so we took a swing, and we were rewarded with a win first time out.”

Completing the field is The Four Horsemen Racing Stable, Inc. and Lady Lindsay Racing Stables’ Tizasweetlady (Post 2), a two-time winner on the Gulfstream Tapeta that ran fifth behind Mythical in the March 14 Any Limit sprinting on the main track.