Leinsters take home the cash in $75,000 Leinster Hollywood Beach

Saturday’s feature at Gulfstream Park was a black-type event for 2-year-olds titled the Leinster Hollywood Beach Stakes, with a purse of $75,000. Fittingly, there were three runners by freshman sire Leinster in the field of nine – a filly, Lennilu, a colt, Monster, and a gelding, Squire, and they finished first, third and fifth.

Lennilu, bred by Joe and Helen Barbazon and owned by a consortium of eight, stalked the pace-setting colt, Monster, through blazing fractions of :20.74 and :43.07, then surged to the lead and won by nearly two lengths in :54.97 for the five furlongs on the grass. She paid $5.80, collected $43,200 and is now 4-0-1 in five tries with earnings of $206,489. The $23,000 OBS Winter yearling is the leading money-winner in North America among all runners by freshman sires.

Monster tired in deep stretch to finish third and pick up $8,640; he now has earnings of $93,391. Squire, at 16-1, finished fifth but was only two necks out of third, and banked $2,160, increasing his total to $76,720. The three Leinsters went home with $54,000 out of the purse of $75,000.