Penna might run two in Musical Romance

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – After contemplating retiring “for about 10 minutes” not long ago, trainer Angel Penna Jr. is back in business and has a couple of talented fillies, Hola Charlotte and Eva London, eyeing next Saturday’s $100,000 Musical Romance Stakes.

Hola Charlotte is coming off the best effort of her career, a 4 1/2-length optional-claiming tally here on April 19. Eva London has won her last two starts, both at a mile, by a combined 10 3/4 lengths. The last race came after she was transferred from trainer Amy Tarrant to Penna this spring.

“Right now, I’m hoping to run both fillies in the stakes,” Penna said on Friday. “The problem is we got a monsoon up here at Palm Meadows for about 45 minutes last night, and I couldn’t breeze them this morning as planned. As long as I can get a work into them by Sunday, we should be all right. Ideally, I’d like to run Hola Charlotte in this race and wait for something a little longer for Eva London, but there aren’t a lot of options at this time.”

Eva London is one of four horses Tarrant turned over to Penna when she returned to her farm and gave up her training duties this spring. Tarrant races under the name Hardacre Farm.

“She is a great lady,” said Penna. “After I realized I couldn’t retire, she helped me a lot, and I really appreciate what she’s done for me. Eva London showed me a lot of class in her last race. She won very professionally and with a good enough Beyer to try her in a stakes. I think she’d be better suited, ultimately, to a mile or a mile and one-sixteenth, but I think she’ll be right there even shortening up to seven furlongs on Saturday.”

Penna, 68, began his training career in Spain in 1975 and had nearly 100 horses under his care before moving to the U.S. five years later. Among his most notable horses through the years were Grade 1 winners Christmas Past, Auntie Mame, and Diamondrella.

Penna said he lost a couple of prominent owners over the last decade or so and considered retiring.

“Eventually, I was down to a couple of maiden claimers going postward at 40-1, and it really hit me hard,” he said. “So, I decided to retire. I rationalized that after getting up at 4 a.m. for 25 years, I could get up when I felt like it now. So, the first day, I was awake at 3:30, walking around the house like a caged lion, and couldn’t take it. So, I returned to the track, and while I’m not all the way back, I’m getting there, slowly building up both in quality and quantity. Not a lot, but enough to justify getting up at 4 a.m. every day.”

The Penna duo were two of 14 fillies and mares nominated to the seven-furlong Musical Romance, including R Girls a Charmer, My Dear Venezuela, and Moment of Delight. Saturday’s card also will feature the $75,000 Christmas Past overnight stakes, for fillies and mares at 1 1/16 miles on turf.