LaPenta Hopes Seven is His Lucky Number

Longtime owner Robert LaPenta won his first Breeders' Cup race in 2007 when War Pass (Cherokee Run) captured the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile en route to champion 2-year-old honors.

“That was an incredible day and he was an incredible horse, just phenomenal,” LaPenta said.

Ten years later, the native New Yorker hopes to score his second, and maybe even third, Breeders' Cup win at the 2017 World Championships at Del Mar with Catholic Boy (More Than Ready) in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf and Whitmore (Pleasantly Perfect) in the GI Breeders' Cup Sprint.

LaPenta won his first Breeders' Cup with Hall of Fame conditioner Nick Zito and the majority of his 37 horses in training are under the tutelage of top New York trainers Todd Pletcher and Chad Brown. However, it is a relatively fresh face on the training scene, Jonathan Thomas, who will saddle Catholic Boy Friday.

A former steeplechase jockey and assistant to Pletcher and Christophe Clement, Thomas is head trainer at John and Leslie Malone's Bridlewood Farm in Florida and saddled his first starters under his own name in 2015, but has increased his stable size this year.

“We split most of our babies between Bridlewood and Stonestreet. [Thomas] had Catholic Boy and we get an evaluation,” LaPenta explained. “Jonathan said, 'You know, I put him on the turf a few times and he looks pretty good.' Jonathan used to be a jockey and he has a good eye so I said, 'Go ahead, Johnathan. Let's do it.' And, he has done it so far.'”

LaPenta added, “He buys horses for me too so he has a good eye. He was the original one on [GI Belmont S. hero] Tapwrit (Tapit) too. He identified him. [Thomas] and my racing manager brought the [Tapwrit] partnership together. I was the last one in on that partnership, otherwise they would not have bought the horse.”

Donning cap and gown in his career bow over the Gulfstream Park lawn July 20, Catholic Boy followed suit with a 12-1 upset victory in Saratoga's GIII With Anticipation S. Aug. 30 (video). Drawn in post four for Friday's event, the bay was given the same 12-1 odds on the Breeders' Cup morning-line as Thomas's first starter at the World Championships.

“It would be a great first, first,” LaPenta said. “It would be really special for [Thomas] and us. He got in there [Oct. 24]. He looks great. This horse has a really explosive turn of foot in closing, which is exactly what you want to see in a turf horse. He has been very professional and I am hoping he runs well. That is all you can say at this point.”

LaPenta's BC Sprint contender Whitmore is conditioned by Ron Moquett, who has saddled just two previous Breeders' Cup starters in Asher (Mountain Cat), sixth in the 1999 Juvenile Fillies, and Gentleman's Bet (Half Ours), who finished third in the 2013 Sprint. Owned in partnership with Southern Springs Stables and Head of Plains Partners, Whitmore was competitive on the GI Kentucky Derby trail last year, hitting the board in the GI Arkansas Derby, GII Rebel S. and GIII Southwest S., but failed to fire on the first Saturday in May.

“I own 30 or 35% of Whitmore. He has been a pleasant surprise,” LaPenta said. “I think Ron [Moquett] has done a great job with him. He was on the Derby trail [last year] and he was very competitive. In the Derby, he didn't pick up his feet once and we found that he had a little bit of an injury.”

Given a breather following the Derby, Whitmore was reinvented as a sprinter at the conclusion of 2016 and proved that was right up his alley. The powerful chestnut reeled off five straight victories sprinting, including the GIII Count Fleet Sprint H. Apr. 15 and the GIII Maryland Sprint S. May 20. Third behind fellow Sprint runner Roy H (More Than Ready) as the favorite in Belmont's GII True North S. June 9, the 4-year-old completed the trifecta again in the GIII De Francis Memorial Dash Sept. 16 and returned to winning ways last time in Keeneland's GII Stoll Keenon Ogden Phoenix S. Oct. 6 (video), a “Win and You're In” event.

“If you watch his races, even in distance races, he had an explosive turn of foot,” LaPenta said. “In 10 seconds, he would pick up five horses and I think Ron caught on to that. Turning him into a sprinter turned out to be a very smart move. He won five in a row. I think we ran him back to early in the race at Belmont and he kind of lost his edge a little bit. That last race in the Stoll Keenon Ogden Phoenix was really something. Right now I am hoping it didn't take too much out of him, but he is on top of his game.”

LaPenta almost had a third BC starter in “TDN Rising Star” Montauk (Medaglia d'Oro), an ultra-impressive debut winner at Belmont Oct. 7, but he and trainer Todd Pletcher ultimately decided it was better to give the colt more time.

“Montauk is the same cross as [BC Juvenile favorite] Bolt d'Oro, Medaglia d'Oro crossed with an A.P. Indy mare,” LaPenta said. “We want to make sure he is healthy and with that kind of a breakout run we want to position him as best we can. There are a couple of options. We could wait or maybe run at Churchill Downs [in the GII Kentucky Jockey Club S. Nov. 25] and give him a race over that track. We are thinking about it.”

Born and raised in Yonkers, N.Y., LaPenta was introduced to racing by his mother, who loved to go to the local harness track, Yonkers Raceway.

“We grew up five minutes from Yonkers Raceway and that was my mom's favorite thing in the world,” LaPenta recalled. “In fact, when she turned 80, I said, 'Mom I am going to take you to Italy and we will do anything you want to do. She said, “Just take me to dinner at Yonkers Raceway!” She would bet $1 on every horse in the race and no matter what happened, she would be happy at the end of the race.”

LaPenta, who is involved in private equity, investing in homeland security, satellite imaging, big data and green technology companies, continued, “My uncle, my brother, there was always some connection, but I worked 50 hours a week and just didn't have time. One day I played golf with Rick Pitino and he asked me if I wanted to join his partnership and I did. That was in the late nineties.”

It wasn't long before LaPenta went out on his own and he quickly found success as both an owner and pinhooker. He sold the likes of Stay Thirsty, Court Vision and Zavata, but it was a failed pinhook, The Cliff's Edge (Gulch), who would become the owner's first Derby starter just a few years after going out on his own. Winner of the GIII Iroquois S. and GII Kentucky Jockey Club S. at two, he won the GI Toyota Blue Grass S. in 2004 and finished fifth to Smarty Jones in the Run for the Roses.

“He was phenomenal,” said LaPenta, who has about 37 horses in training and 10 broodmares. “It was an incredible monsoon that day, but he comes out of the gate and loses one shoe coming out of the gate and the other shoe didn't come completely off, but went sideways into his foot, which knocked him out of the rest of the Triple Crown. He still ran fifth.”

LaPenta is still searching for his first Derby win, but he won his second GI Belmont S. this year with Tapwrit (Tapit), a $1.2 million FTSAUG buy owned in partnership with Eclipse Thoroughbreds and Bridlewood.

“It was my second time winning the Belmont and it was just as exciting the second time being in a partnership as it was the first. Because the first [in 2008], I never expected that would happen with Da'Tara. I thought he would run well, but I never thought he would beat Big Brown. [The Belmont] is one of my favorites absolutely.”

Pletcher, LaPenta and his partners decided to bypass the Breeders' Cup with Tapwrit and freshen him up for a 4-year-old campaign.

“We are hoping he is going to be a great 4-year-old,” the owner said. “A lot of the big guns are going to retire this year like Gun Runner (Candy Ride {Arg}) and Arrogate (Unbridled's Song), so I think Tapwrit is going to be an exciting 4-year-old.”

While LaPenta has won many big races, including a Breeders' Cup, he said another win at the World Championships would be just as special as the first.

“I am going to go out there with a whole posse and we are excited. Del Mar has been on my list for a long time,” LaPenta said. “It is going to be the first time for everybody out at that track, so if we could have good performances, it would only add to the whole weekend.”

LaPenta continued, “Every serious owner has the same goals and aspirations, right? Especially when you invest all this time and money in these horses. Everybody has the same ones on their list: Derby, Travers, which has only been one or 1.2 on my list, and the Breeders' Cup. The Breeders' Cup is special because it is so important for Eclipse awards and the status and the value of a horse. It would be great.”