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Angel Penna, Jr. Passes Away at 74

Angel Penna, Jr., who trained Eclipse Award winners Christmas Past and Laugh and Be Merry and was the son of Hall of Famer Angel Penna, Sr., passed away Tuesday at age 74.

Battling dementia, Penna passed away in his sleep in a memory care facility near his home in Boca Raton, Florida.

Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Penna was an assistant to his father before going out on his own in 1980. His clients at the time included Cynthia Phipps, who raced in the colors of Wheatley Stable, her grandmother's stable, which also had bred and raced Bold Ruler. Phipps owned Christmas Past, who failed to break her maiden in two starts as a 2-year-old, but put it all together the following year. Named the champion 3-year-old filly of 1982, she won five stakes that year, including the GI Coaching Club American Oaks, the GI Gulfstream Park H. and the GI Ruffian H.

Laugh and Be Merry was owned by Pin Oak Farm and was named champion grass mare of 1990. She won three stakes that year, including the GI Flower Bowl H.

“He loved his horses,” said his widow Ruth. “As you know, he was a good trainer. He took a lot of pride in bringing them to the races.”

Other top horses trained by Penna include Perfect Arc, Silver Voice, Via Borghese, Auntie Mame, A Phenomenon and Diamondrella. His clients also included Martha Gerry's Lazy F. Ranch.

According to Equibase, Penna had 586 wins in his career and earnings of $24,084,854. He made his last start on Nov. 4, 2021.

In addition to his wife, survivors include his stepmother Elinor Penna.

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Lady Speightspeare, Gam’s Mission Headline Friday’s Valley View

Charles Fipke's undefeated Lady Speightspeare, scratched at the gate for the Oct. 16 Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup Presented by Dixiana, headlines an overflow field of 14 3-year-old fillies plus two also-eligibles entered Sunday for Friday's 31st running of the Grade 3 Rubicon Valley View at Keeneland Race Course in Lexington, Ky.

Slated to be run at 1 1/16 miles on the turf, the Rubicon Valley View will go as the ninth race on Friday afternoon's 10-race program with a 5:16 p.m. ET post time. First post Friday is 1 p.m.

Trained by Roger Attfield, Lady Speightspeare has won all three of her starts highlighted by a victory in last year's Grade 1 Natalma at Woodbine Racetrack in Toronto, Ontario. Emma-Jayne Wilson, who has been aboard for all of Lady Speightspeare's starts, will ride Friday and break from post 11.

The other graded stakes winner in the field is Lazy F Ranch's homebred Gam's Mission.

Trained by Cherie DeVaux, Gam's Mission returns to the races for the first time since finishing fifth in the Grade 3 Saratoga Oaks Invitational in August at Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. Prior to that, Gam's Mission was fourth in the Grade 1 Belmont Oaks Invitational at Belmont Park in Elmont, N.Y., after winning the Grade 3 Regret at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky.

Adam Beschizza will have the mount Friday and break from post 14.

Six other grass stakes winners in the field are Godolphin's Adventuring (Dueling Grounds Oaks), BBN Racing's Core Values (Preview Dueling Grounds Derby), Peachtree Stable's Saranya (Curtis Sampson Oaks), G. Watts Humphrey Jr.'s Navratilova (Tepin), EuroLindy Syndicate's Queenship (IRE) (Navigation Stakes in Ireland) and Terry Hamilton, Gary Barber, and trainer Brian Lynch's three-time stakes winner Tobys Heart.

Also entered is Phoenix Thoroughbred III's Crazy Beautiful, a three-time graded stakes winner on dirt who won going a mile on the grass in her racing debut last year at 2 for trainer Kenny McPeek.

The field for the Rubicon Valley View, with riders and weights from the inside, is: Core Values (Rafael Bejarano, 118 pounds), Saranya (Joe Talamo, 118), Crazy Beautiful (Brian Hernandez Jr., 118), Tobys Heart (Joel Rosario, 118), Navratilova (Colby Hernandez, 118), Oliviaofthedesert (Corey Lanerie, 118), Adventuring (Florent Geroux, 118), Breaker of Chains (Tyler Gaffalione, 118), Arm Candy (Ricardo Santana Jr., 118), Oyster Box (James Graham, 118), Lady Speightspeare (Wilson, 118), Queenship (IRE) (Julien Leparoux, 118), Flown (Jose Ortiz, 118), Gam's Mission (Beschizza, 118). Also eligibles: Princess Theorem (Jose Ortiz, 118), Wait for Nairobi (Edgar Morales, 118).

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Gam’s Mission Gives Trainer Cherie DeVaux First Graded Victory In Regret

Carrying jockey Adam Beschizza and the yellow and black silks of Lazy F Ranch made famous by Hall of Fame gelding Forego in the 1970s, Gam's Mission rallied down the middle of the Churchill Downs turf course in Louisville, Ky., to win Saturday's Grade 3 Regret Stakes for 3-year-old fillies. The win gave Cherie DeVaux her initial graded stakes victory since taking out her trainer's license in 2018.

A daughter of the Galileo stallion Noble Mission (a full brother to Frankel), Gam's Mission covered 1 1/8 miles on good turf in 1:51.02, winning by three-quarters of a length. Spanish Loveaffair, the 7-5 favorite, finished second after battling on the front end with Postnup for much of the race. Flown finished third, with Oyster Box fourth in the field of eight, followed by Barista, Munnyfor Ro, Line Dancing and Postnup. Saranya scratched.

Gam's Mission raced in fifth early after being bumped at the start by Postnup, who veered outwardly from the number six post position and then raced to the front to secure an early advantage over Spanish Loveaffair. Postnup went the opening quarter mile in :24.55 and the half in :49.56 under pressure from the favorite, who put Postnup away after six furlongs in 1:14.27.

Beschizza swung Gam's Mission out for a clear run at the top of the stretch, battled with Spanish Loveaffair and Flown inside the eighth pole after a mile in 1:38.90, then gradually edged away approaching the wire. Flown was beaten just a head for second.

The win was the third consecutive triumph for Gam's Mission, whose only defeat came at the hands of eventual G1 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf winner Aunt Pearl in a Sept. 1, 2020, maiden race at Churchill Downs. She won her 2021 debut in a maiden race at Fair Grounds on March 21, then came back for an allowance victory at Churchill on May 8.

Gam's Mission was produced from the War Pass mare, Auntie Martha, a Lazy F Ranch homebred presumably named after Martha Gerry, who campaigned three-time Horse of the Year Forego and was honored as an Exemplar of Racing at the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., just prior to her death in 2007. Gerry was the aunt of William S. Farish, who stood Noble Mission at his Lane's End prior to the horse's export to Japan.

Cornelia Corbett, the daughter of Martha Gerry, continues to race a handful of horses in the name of Lazy F Ranch. Her son, Rick, is a partner in Gam's Mission, the first horse he bought into, according to Bill Farish, son of the Lane's End owner.

Cherie DeVaux, right, in the winner's circle with husband David Ingordo and jockey Adam Beschizza following the Regret

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