Multiple Grade 1 winner Presious Passion retired
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 9-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 $200,000 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 2-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 triumphs in three grade 1, dual grade 2 and one grade 3 stakes races.
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 here, 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. In 2008-2009, he took back-to-back runnings of the Grade 1 United Nations Stakes 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 and his grade 2 wins came in the 2007-2008 editions of the W.L. McKnight Handicap at Calder.
