LaPenta Enjoying Success With Greater Perspective

Robert LaPenta owned a share of four horses that ran in stakes during the Stars & Stripes Racing Festival at Belmont Park on July 7 and experienced an afternoon that propelled him through a cascade of emotions.

Two of them of them were unplaced as 2017 Belmont Stakes Presented by NYRA Bets (G1) winner Tapwrit was fifth as the betting favorite in the $700,000 Suburban Stakes (G2) and Hawkish was seventh in the $1.2 million Belmont Derby Invitational Stakes (G1T).

He also suffered a heartbreaking loss when his multiple graded stakes winner Whitmore was collared by Limousine Liberal in the final strides of the $350,000 Belmont Sprint Championship (G2) and lost by a neck.

All of that disappointment was then pushed into the background when his 3-year-old colt Catholic Boy dug down after being passed in the stretch and beat Analyze It by a head in the Belmont Derby, leaving LaPenta overwhelmed by joy.

"Oh my God," LaPenta said after the grade 1 victory. "He is such an amazing animal. His heart is huge. It's immeasurable. It's beyond comprehension that he came back to win again. I'm sure 99 out of 100 horses would have packed it in in the stretch."

Yet even if Catholic Boy had suffered the same fate as Whitmore and wound up on the losing end of a photo finish, it's unlikely LaPenta would have complained.

After overcoming a rare disease in late March that nearly killed him, the 72-year-old Connecticut businessman has learned to find pleasure in each and every day that comes his way.

"When I think about what happened to me earlier in the year, I'll never complain about bad luck again," he said.

The week leading up to Catholic Boy's fourth-place finish in the Xpressbet Florida Derby (G1) on March 31 at Gulfstream Park should have been filled with nervous excitement for LaPenta, but instead he was in Norwalk (CT) Hospital in failing health as doctors struggled to find a cure for the disease that was ravaging his body.

"I went into the hospital with what I thought was pneumonia but I didn't know how seriously sick I was," the Westport (CT) resident said.

LaPenta said as his condition worsened with each passing day, his temperature reached a high of 106 degrees and his heart rate soared to frightening 180 beats per minute while the fever took hold of him.

"I was about five hours from lights out," he said.

Then, as LaPenta was talking with his son, Robert Jr., about a recent business meeting on the West Coast, one of his attending physicians, Dr. Peter Saikali, overheard their conversation and it put a wild notion in his head. After a series of tests, the internal medicine specialist discovered that LaPenta was suffering from Legionnaires' disease.

"I still can't believe it myself. I had a case of Legionnaires' disease. You read about treatments for pneumonia and viruses, but if they don't know which exact bacteria to give you, you are in serious trouble. It was this really smart young doctor, Dr. Saikali, who saved my life," LaPenta said. "Thank God for his diagnosis. He gave me drugs and I didn't wake up for three days but I've been fine ever since. Life is crazy."

A potentially deadly form of pneumonia, Legionnaires' disease was first diagnosed after an outbreak at a 1976 American Legion convention in Philadelphia that killed 29 persons.  Caused by the bacterium legionella, Legionnaires' disease remains rare with just 6,100 reported cases in the United States during 2016, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

While he cannot speak with certainty about where he came into contact with legionella, LaPenta strongly believes it came from staying at a house that been shuttered for a while and bacteria built up in the water pipes.

"You can find it in places with stagnant water," said LaPenta, whose other grade 1 winners include 2008 Belmont Stakes winner Da' Tara, 2007 2-year-old champion male War Pass and 2004 Toyota Blue Grass (G1) winner The Cliff's Edge. "I've since learned that if water is shut off for a long period, you should let it run for 20 minutes before you come in contact with it. All you have to is inhale legionella and you can become sick."

Dr. Saikali said he has been deeply moved by the way LaPenta has continually expressed his gratitude over the last three months.

"Patients usually come and go, they say thank you at the door, and that's usually the end of it.

But Mr. LaPenta kept in touch a few times via email, and he continues to touch me with his gratitude with respect to his hospital stay. He is such a humble soul, and I am very lucky to have met him, and very happy that he continues to shine light in my direction," said Dr. Saikali, who is now part of the medical staff at Portsmouth Regional Hospital in New Hampshire.

LaPenta's gratitude will soon reach a new level as he plans to name one of his 2-year-olds after Dr. Saikali in appreciation of the internist's life-saving actions.

"I'm really honored by that," Dr. Saikali said. "I don't follow horse racing but I know they are very special animals and for him to name one of his horses after me tells about the impact I had on him. I'm sure that in his mind the horse will be a symbol of what he went through, but it should also remind him of the love that was at his bedside throughout that ordeal. He wasn't awake for much of it but his wife (Laurie) and son were there 24/7 supporting him. And he shouldn't forget that he was the one who fought that battle. He was a real trooper. He grabbed the disease by the horns and fought it with everything he has and beat it."

While back in excellent health now, LaPenta admits the illness opened his eyes to how fragile and precious life can be and that it taught him valuable lessons that will always be with him.

"You get something as serious as Legionnaires' disease and you find out life is shorter than you always thought it was," he said. "There's no question that it teaches you a greater appreciation for life."

Even on those days when you lose a photo finish in a graded stakes.