Lenny WINS!!!!

Lentenor is no longer a maiden having convincingly romped away from the field in yesterday's ninth race at Gulfstream. Breaking from the number 1 post position and under a strong ride from John Velazquez (who got the mount after Lezcano was thrown from a horse in the fourth race of the day), Lentenor was about a length behind the leader, Dixie Summer, until the top of the stretch when he exploded with that characteristic Barbaro second gear.

Dixie Summer set blazing fractions but Lentenor had enough in him to simply run away from his only challenger, Rock America under Kent Desormeaux. Lentenor stayed on the rail while Rock America was forced wide and then simply took off under a strong ride from Velazquez. It was an impressive victory for Barbaro's youngest brother who went off as an 11 to 10 favorite.

"We've always know he was a good horse. He's a big boy and still a bit immature, but he got a lot of experience today," Matz said. "He'd been working well. We'll see how he comes out of it and take a little time to evaluate what might be next."

Now the guessing begins again but Matz did give some clues as to Lenny's next start: a possible Allowance race for non-winners of two or maybe even a turf stakes. We will just have to wait and see.

There is a February 17th Allowance race at Gulfstream that is 1 1/8 on the turf that seems to have his name all over it, but there is also the possibility of the Fountain of Youth Stakes which is on the dirt, three days later. Either one sets up nicely for the Florida Derby, which is a month later.

Either way, even Matz mentioned the possibility of a Triple Crown race, with the following caveat: "It's much too early to say whether he'd be far enough along to consider something like that."

In the meantime, I think Lenny has found his jockey. Let's hope Velazquez keeps the mount and that the horse comes out of the race nicely. What an exciting victory!