Penna pair should get the right setup in Musical Romance

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – A $100,000 purse and likely a starting berth or two in the Grade 2 Princess Rooney are on the line Saturday at Gulfstream Park, where a well-matched field of eight fillies and mares will contest the Musical Romance Stakes. The seven-furlong dash highlights an 11-race card that also includes the $75,000 Christmas Past, also for fillies and mares, at 1 1/16 miles on turf.

The Musical Romance is named for the winner of the 2011 Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint. She also captured the Princess Rooney, then a Grade 1, the following summer at Calder Race Course.

The top last-race Beyer Speed Figures in this field belong to the Angel Penna Jr.-trained pair of Eva London and Hola Charlotte, both of whom will be making their stakes debut Saturday.

Eva London is coming off a seven-length entry-level allowance win going a mile for which she earned an 84 Beyer. The victory was the second in a row for the 4-year-old filly, who was turned over to Penna by her owner and former trainer, Amy Tarrant, earlier this spring.

Hola Charlotte also enters off an impressive win, having rallied to a 4 1/2-length decision over a pretty solid group of second-level optional-claiming rivals at 6 1/2 furlongs on April 19. She received a career-best 83 Beyer.

“I’d prefer to run Hola Charlotte and wait for something a little longer for Eva London,” said Penna, who has won with four of the first eight horses he’s started at the current session. “But there aren’t a lot of options here at the moment, she’s doing well, and she should be able to handle this distance.”

Both of Penna’s fillies do their best running at the end and should get ample pace to run at because there is plenty of speed signed on, including My Dear Venezuela, R Kinsley Doll, and R Girls a Charmer.

My Dear Venezuela makes her first start since finishing fourth, nearly five lengths behind Hola Charlotte, when haltered for $62,500 out of her 2017 debut. She faded late after contesting the pace through midstretch in a race she figures to improve upon.

R Kinsley Doll, a two-time stakes winner here last summer, led from start to finish to capture a seven-furlong overnight stakes Feb. 20 in her only start of the season. She’s yet to post a Beyer above 77 in her career and at the time of entry for the Musical Romance had not worked since her Feb. 2 win.

R Girls a Charmer, 4, has yet to recapture the form that made her a stakes winner early in her 3-year-old campaign. She has not started since finishing far back after forcing the early running of the Sunshine Millions Distaff Preview on Nov. 12.

Royal Jewely is a stakes winner who has had success on both turf and dirt, primarily in races around two turns.

KEY CONTENDERS

Eva London, by Adios Charlie

Last 3 Beyers: 84-77-59

◗ She’s a half-sister to the speedy stakes winner Lisa’s Booby Trap.

Hola Charlotte, by Adios Charlie

Last 3 Beyers: 83-80-79

◗ Her Beyers have improved with every start since her maiden win here last summer.

My Dear Venezuela, by Wildcat Heir

Last 3 Beyers: 73-68-71

◗ She’ll have to improve from a Beyer standpoint, although she exits an eye-catching 59.40-second five-furlong drill here last weekend.

Also on Saturday, Somethingelse and Catsadiva, both stakes-placed last out, may vie for favoritism against eight others in the Christmas Past. Other key contenders include King’s Ghost, the stakes-placed Dad’s Princess, and Susie Bee.