Angel Penna Jr., trainer of champions Christmas Past and Laugh and Be Merry, dies at 74
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Angel Penna Jr., the son of Hall of Fame trainer Angel Penna Sr., died Tuesday in Boca Raton, Fla. He was 74.
Penna had been suffering from dementia, according to a report in Thoroughbred Daily News.
Penna, a native of Argentina, won 586 races with earnings in excess of $24 million during a training career that spanned more than four decades. Penna, who campaigned exclusively in south Florida over the past 10 years, sent out his final winner, Callmesenorita, on Feb. 11, 2021, at Gulfstream Park.
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Penna trained champions Christmas Past, the top 3-year-old filly of 1982, and the Pin Oak Stud homebred Laugh and Be Merry, the 1990 older female Eclipse winner. Christmas Past, owned by Cynthia Phipps, won the 1982 Coaching Club America Oaks before capping her career by beating males the following winter in the Gulfstream Park Handicap. She was retired after that race.
Other notable horses trained by Penna included Grade 1 winners A Phenomenon, Auntie Mame, Cool, Diamondrella, Nine Keys, and Perfect Arc.
“I was in shock when I heard the news that Angel had passed,” said trainer Luis Carvajal, who worked as an exercise rider for Penna from 1992-98 and galloped, among others, Auntie Mame, Via Borghese, and Nine Keys. “I could spend all day talking and never finish saying nice things about him. Whenever I asked for help, he never hesitated. He helped get me my green card and was always willing to give me advice any time I called when I had my stakes horse Imperial Hint. I was all alone when I came to this country at the age of 15, my family is still back in Chile, and he was like a father figure to me. I still can’t believe he’s gone.”
Penna is survived by his wife, Ruth, and stepmother, Elinor Penna.
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