HALLANDALE BEACH - Racing for the first time since her outstanding run at Royal Ascot in mid-June, grass stakes winner Lennilu battled with impressive maiden graduate Finding Strength the length of the stretch before getting her nose down on the wire to win a thrilling edition of Saturday’s $100,000 Desert Vixen at Gulfstream Park.

    The Desert Vixen for fillies co-headlined an 11-race program with the $100,000 Dr. Fager, each sprinting six furlongs, to lead off the 44th edition of the $1.2 million Florida Thoroughbred Breeders’ and Owners’ Association Florida Sire Stakes series for 2-year-olds by accredited Florida stallions.

 

          Ridden by Jonathan Ocasio for trainer Patrick Biancone, Lennilu ($4.80) covered a fast main track in a stakes-record 1:10.72 for her third win from four career starts and second in a stakes following the Royal Palm Juvenile Fillies May 10 on the Gulfstream turf. That effort earned her an automatic berth in Royal Ascot’s Queen Mary (G2), where she was beaten less than two lengths by True Love.

 

          The previous record of 1:10.85 was set last year by R Morning Brew, breaking a mark that had stood for seven years.

 

          “She has everything. That’s why we brought her to England. She couldn’t beat the winner, because the winner is the best filly in Europe. She could have been second, but she never saw the horse on the inside. But everyone was delighted by the race,” said Biancone, who celebrated his first FTBOA Sire Stakes victory. “When you go overseas and travel so far and perform well, that’s why we gave her a big rest.”

 

          Cross-entered in Saturday’s Untapable sprinting on the turf at Kentucky Downs, Biancone consulted with co-owners Amy Dunne, Caitlin Dunne, Brenda Miley, Jean Wilkinson, Hoffman Family Racing, Tranquility Lake Farm, Maury Harrington and Christopher Harrington and opted to keep Lennilu at home. Though her 3 ¾-length stakes victory came on the grass, she graduated in debut over a sealed sloppy main track April 6 at Keeneland.

 

         “We finally decided to stay here because of the rain in Kentucky, and I didn’t want to run on soft ground, and over here when it rained she liked the wet track,” he said. “We gave her plenty of time because we want her to be ready for the Breeders’ Cup.”

 

          Finding Strength, making her stakes debut off a 4 ¼-length maiden triumph in her second start Aug. 17, outran Lennilu for the early lead and went the opening quarter-mile in 22.15 seconds. Lennilu stalked from the two path in second, with Love Like Lucy tracking three wide in third and Happy Feet Hannah in fourth along the rail.

 

          The half-mile went in 45.50 with Lennilu and Finding Strength on even terms, and they straightened for home together to set up a duel to wire with the two fillies racing side-by-side and neither yielding an inch.

 

          “Jonathan was very good because I told him no more than [twice with the crop]. Just give her two and finish with your hands, and she put her nose down because she’s a winner,” Biancone said. “When they put up the number I was sure we got it. I’ve been beaten many times and I’ve won plenty, too, like that.”

 

          Riding Lennilu for the first time, Ocasio and Biancone are coming off a Royal Palm Meet where they went 11-for-30 together including stakes wins in the Bear’s Den with Layabout and 2-year-old Diciassette in the Proud Man.

 

                “It was a pretty exciting moment. I thought the filly won it pretty well. I was confident that the filly won it, but it was close at the end,” Ocasio said. “She’s a filly I’ve been working in the morning. I know her pretty well. I just tried to keep her comfortable the whole way. When I asked her at the end, thank God, she gave me everything.”

 

          Love Like Lucy finished third, followed by Evolution, Happy Feet Hannah and Copper Creole. Laigina, Lennilu’s unraced stablemate that has been a workmate of Dr. Fager program favorite Squire, was scratched.

 

          Finding Strength’s trainer, Michael Yates, was thrilled with his filly’s effort.

 

          “She ran really well,” he said. “Being inside today she kind of had to go a little bit. I thought she was well within herself and she ran hard to the wire.”

 

          Biancone said he plans to point Lennilu to the $75,000 Hollywood Beach for 2-year-olds sprinting five furlongs on the grass Sept. 27 at Gulfstream as a final prep for the Breeders’ Cup at Del Mar, which runs its juvenile races Oct. 31.

 

          “She has this good race in her,” he said. “In three weeks she has the five-eighths on the turf and then we go to Del Mar.”

 

          Named for the two-time champion and 1979 Hall of Fame mare that won 13 of 28 career starts from 1972-75, the Desert Vixen is the first of three legs in the FSS filly division, followed by the $200,000 Susan’s Girl Oct. 18 and $300,000 My Dear Girl Nov. 29. comments powered by Disqus