Lennilu gets Game Face Stakes win after Love Like Lucy disqualification

The Game Face Stakes changed hands in the stewards’ room, and that is what will matter most when Lennilu’s record is reviewed later in the summer. Love Like Lucy hit the wire first in the six-furlong dirt sprint at Gulfstream Park, but after a stewards’ review of the stretch run, she was disqualified from first to second for interference and Lennilu was elevated to the official victory in the $100,000 added race.

The final chart gave Lennilu, a 3-year-old Florida-bred daughter of Leinster trained by Patrick Biancone, the win in 1:10.90 over a fast track in Race 10 on May 23 at 5:40 p.m. Jonathan Ocasio rode Lennilu, while Nik Juarez was aboard Love Like Lucy. The official result produced a Florida-bred exacta, but the bigger shift was on Lennilu’s résumé: a result that looked like a narrow second became another black-type win, the kind that changes how a filly is priced, placed, and matched going forward.

For Lennilu, the ruling added more than a line in the chart. Gulfstream described her as part of an ownership group headed by Amy E. Dunne, and the Game Face pushed her record at the Hallandale Beach track to four wins from four dirt starts there. That makes the disqualification especially meaningful because it preserved a perfect local dirt mark while also showing she can carry her speed on a surface that is becoming central to her value.

The result also widened the view of what Lennilu already was before May 23. She had been a multiple-stakes winner on turf before this race, including the Leinster Melody of Colors Stakes on March 22 at Gulfstream, and her profile already carried international class from a third-place finish in the Group 2 Queen Mary at Royal Ascot in 2025. The Game Face did not just add another stakes line. It showed that the filly can move between turf and dirt and still stay in the hunt when the pressure rises.

That versatility matters in a filly division where black type can determine the next assignment, the next paddock appeal, and the next level of competition. Lennilu came away with a win that was not settled until after the running, and that official switch from second to first gave her something more valuable than a photo finish: a dirt stakes victory that sharpens her profile for whatever comes next.