The career of multiple Grade 1 winner and grass specialist Presious Passion,
who finished second in the 2009 Breeders’ Cup Turf and has been a longtime
favorite at Monmouth Park, has come to an end.
The nine-year-old gelded son of Royal Anthem out of the Marquetry mare
Princesa’s Passion ran his final race this past Sunday, when he finished next to
last in the Grade 2 Monmouth Stakes.
“He went to a nice farm in Ocala (Florida). It’s the (Joseph and Helen)
Barbazon’s farm and it’s where he was born,” said Mary Hartmann, who trained him
for owner Patricia Generazio.
“It was awfully tough to say good bye to him and I’ll really miss him. We had
a great time together and it was a great run.”
The chestnut gelding began his career in a maiden special weight for
two-year-olds in December of 2005 and made another 51 starts, winning 14 times,
placing seven times, and finishing third twice as he amassed earnings of
$2,694,599. Included on his resume are 11 stakes triumphs, nine of them graded.
Although Presious Passion competed at many different tracks, including Meydan
in the United Arab Emirates in 2010, Monmouth Park was always his home. He made
17 starts at the Jersey Shore, 15 of which were on the turf. In those 15 races,
he won five, finished second three times and was third once as he earned
$1,145,500 on this course.
Presious Passion took back-to-back runnings of the Grade 1 United Nations
Stakes in 2008-2009, setting a course record the second time, and also won the
Monmouth Stakes in 2009. His other Grade 1 victory was in the Clement Hirsch
Memorial Turf Championship Stakes at Santa Anita. His Grade 2 wins came in the
2007-2008 editions of the W.L. McKnight Handicap at Calder and the 2009-10
runnings of the Mac Diarmida at Gulfstream.
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