BY BROCK SHERIDAN
DECEMBER 13, 2008—Patricia Generazio’s Presious Passion flashed his dynamic and enduring speed in winning the mile-and-a-half W.L. McKnight Handicap (Grade 2) for the second straight year at Calder Race Course. With his regular rider Elvis Trujillo, the 5-year-old chestnut gelding earned the $86,490 winner’s share of the $150,00 purse to boost his career bankroll to $1,052,018 while besting 11 other 3-year-olds and older over a mile-and-a-half on the turf.
Co-highweighted at 118 pounds with Always First (GB), Presious Passion was quick to front from post eight to lead by four lengths after two furlongs in :23.91. He was four lengths in front of Picou in second as they finished the half mile in :48.04 but Picou began to creep closer, getting within a length after a mile in 1:37.47. Picou became a threat around the final turn as the two rivals went past the quarter-mile marker head and head in 2:01.44 before Presious Passion repelled his challenger in the stretch. Presious Passion and Trujillo drew off in the run for home to win by two lengths in 2:25.64 on the firm turf. Logic Way came from sixth to get second with Always First (GB) three-quarters of a length back in third. Picou faded to eighth.
“This is a very nice horse to ride,” Trujillo said in a BloodHorse story by Jason Shandler. “If you know what he likes and responds to, he will give you everything he has.
“I learned when I rode him to win this race last year that if I give him a loose rein early on in the race and then start shortening my hold of him when I want him to pick it up, he will get confident and start running harder and harder. We set an honest pace up front, but he does that deceivingly easy.”
It was the first victory in five starts for Presious Passon and his first since winning the mile-and-three-eighths United Nations (G1) on the Monmouth Park turf six months earlier. He went off at 7-1 in the McKnight and paid $17.20 to win.
Trainer Mary Hartmann shortened him up to nine furlongs in his next start in the $500,000 Sunshine Millions Turf at Gulfstream on Jan. 24, 2009, but he finished second to Soldier’s Dancer. But he found added distance again in his next start, winning the mile-and-three-eighths Mac Diarmida (G2) at Gulfstream Park by a half-length on Feb. 21, 2009.
He also won the United Nations again in 2009 before adding the Clement L. Hirsch Memorial Turf Championship Stakes (G1) to his resume in October of that year.
A month later on Nov. 7, 2009, Presious Passion and Trujillo thrilled an international audience by leading the $2.7 million Emirates Airlines Breeders’ Cup Turf (G1) by as much as 10 lengths in the early stages. Presious Passion carried his speed around the final turn and into the stretch before losing a tough fight in the final sixteenth to finish second, a half-length shy of odds-on favorite Conduit (Ire).
Presious Passion racked up his second Mac Diarmida in February of 2010 and raced eight more times before retiring after finishing sixth in the Monmouth Stakes (G2) in June of 2012.
His final record reflects 14 wins, seven seconds and two thirds with earnings of $2,694,599, ranking him as the 20th richest Florida-bred of all time.
By Royal Anthem out of Princesa’s Passion, by Marquetry, Presious Passion comfortably resides in retirement today at Pleasant Acres Stallions, the 225-acre farm in Morriston, Fla., owned by his breeders Helen and Joseph Barbarzon.
Presious Passion remains a popular celebrity during farm tours and visits from his longtime fans. He will turn 22 on March 5, 2025.
Return to the December 13 issue of Wire to Wire
