It Can Be Done may shake loose in Presious Passion

One should always give special consideration to a speed horse entered in the Presious Passion Stakes.

Presious Passion during his heyday in 2008 and 2009 was a front-running monster in long-distance turf races. He won the United Nations at Monmouth Park twice, and in 2009 set a breakneck pace and finished second behind Conduit in the Breeders’ Cup Turf.

The $100,000 race that bears his name comes around again Sunday at Monmouth, appropriately carded for 1 1/2 miles on grass – a long race on the third-to-last card of a long race meeting.

Joe Bravo, who won a combined 174 Monmouth races during 2008 and 2009, rides the potential pacesetter, rail-drawn It Can Be Done. Greg Sacco, who won a combined 36 Monmouth races during Monmouth-based Presious Passion’s two glorious years, trains It Can Be Done, a 6-year-old gelding by Temple City, a strong source of turf stamina.

:: Bet the races with a $200 First Deposit Match + FREE All Access PPs! Join DRF Bets.

It Can Be Done began his year racing in a $25,000 conditioned claimer at Tampa Bay Downs but has come considerably forward since that start. He’s won three in a row racing on the pace in middle-distance turf races, and while his lone try over 1 1/2 miles was poor, that came at the tail end of 2023, when It Can Be Done wasn’t doing nearly as well as now.

Sacco has a second runner, Be Here, who also has a touch of pace and races with blinkers added. Thirty Thou Kelvin also should go forward, while Sports Editor could take his positional pace to Colonial Downs rather than start in the Presious Passion.

The probable favorite, Highland Chief, probably will not be a pace factor, though his signature win, in the Grade 1 Man o’ War in 2022, came in front-running fashion. Highland Chief ran competitively in two more New York stakes that summer, and in the fall won the 1 1/2-mile Sycamore at Keeneland, but he was all but eased in the Breeders’ Cup Turf in his following race, and didn’t start again until this past April.

The Highland Chief of today is not the Highland Chief of two years ago, but he still rates a strong chance in the Presious Passion. Trained by Graham Motion, Highland Chief drops sharply in class from the Grade 1 Arlington Million, and while he finished sixth there, beaten more than eight lengths going 1 1/4 miles, that marked his best race among four following the long layoff.

:: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.