Weaver Earns Return Trip to Ascot With Sandal's Song

Two years after George Weaver landed his first Royal Ascot success with Crimson Advocate, the trainer hopes to be back in a winning position overseas once more with Dew Sweepers' Sandal's Song. Unraced before the Royal Palm Juvenile Stakes, Sandal's Song made his debut a winning one, rocketing home by 1 1/2 lengths May 10 at Gulfstream Park. The $100,000 Royal Palm Juvenile and Royal Palm Juvenile Fillies stakes are the only two Royal Ascot qualifiers in the country staged for juveniles. Respective winners of the Royal Palm races are eligible to compete in one of Ascot's six prestigious 2-year-old stakes during the week-long Royal Ascot meeting in June. The winners are also given a $25,000 travel stipend to alleviate their venture across the Atlantic. A 2-year-old son of Mendelssohn out of the Munnings mare Sandal, Sandal's Song sold to Dew Sweepers for $75,000 at last year's Fasig-Tipton Kentucky Fall Yearling Sale. After joining Weaver's barn this winter, the colt recorded only four published works at nearby Palm Beach Downs Training Center before Saturday's contest. Breaking from the one hole under Luca Panici, Sandal's Song tucked into a stalking trip along the rail behind the battling pacesetters Squire and Beers On Me. Panici angled the colt three wide at the top of the stretch and he powered by his rivals, striking the wire in a final time of :56.30 over a firm turf course. Favored Squire, wheeling back off an April 18 Gulfstream maiden score for trainer Patrick Biancone, ran on gamely for second after pressing swift early fractions of :21.90 and :44.50. Weaver swept the 2023 Royal Palm races with No Nay Mets (IRE) in the Juvenile and Crimson Advocate in the Juvenile Fillies. Crimson Advocate went on to capture Royal Ascot's Queen Mary Stakes (G2). "We're excited. Hopefully, if he comes out of it well, we'll try to get to Ascot," Weaver said. "We've got the lay of the land. We understand it. It takes a good horse, and I think we got one." Lennilu First Stakes Winner for Leinster in Royal Palm Leinster extended his early lead over the freshman sire class when his 2-year-old daughter Lennilu gave the first-crop stallion his first stakes winner in Saturday's Royal Palm Juvenile Fillies Stakes. A multiple graded stakes-winning turf sprinter himself, it was no surprise to see Leinster's filly Lennilu take to the lawn with a convincing 3 3/4-length score. "The father (Leinster) was a very good sprinter on turf, so I had a lot of confidence in her coming into this race," trainer Patrick Biancone said. "The plan all along was to get to Ascot. That's why so many partners joined in for that trip." Outfooted by the Wesley Ward-trained Satisfied Mind to the first pole out of the gate, Lennilu overtook her rival around the far turn and stormed home in a final time of :56.99. Lennilu, ridden by Luis Saez, returned $3.60 for a $2 win ticket. First-time starters Bibi Dahl and Strada Del Sogno completed the trifecta. Owned by Amy Dunne, Caitlin Dunne, Brenda Miley, Jean Wilkinson, Hoffman Family Racing, Tranquility Lake Farm, and Maury and Christopher Harrington, Florida-bred Lennilu was purchased for $23,000 at the 2024 Ocala Breeders' Sales Winter Mixed Sale. She is first winner for her dam, the Pomeroy mare Lulu's Pom Pom. Leinster stands the 2025 breeding season at Pleasant Acres Stallions near Morristown, Fla., for a fee $2,500. Two of his first three runners have been winners.