L'Imperator finds softer company in Presious Passion

The penultimate Saturday of the long Monmouth Park race meeting features a long turf race.

The $100,000 Presious Passion is carded for 12 furlongs on turf and drew nine entrants, and while four horses were cross-entered in Thursday’s Cape Henlopen Stakes at Delaware Park, only Alex Joon was scheduled to run there after rain forced the Cape Henlopen from turf to dirt.

Presious Passion made a career of racing on the lead in long-distance turf contests like the one bearing his name, and the favorite Saturday, L’Imperator, also has done his best recent work from the front end.

L’Imperator looks like odds-on chalk shipping from New York for trainer Chad Brown. The French-bred gelding is a soft-ground specialist, and his lone win in four starts this season came over a yielding course at Belmont Park in the Fort Marcy in May, but performances on firmer footing in two subsequent appearances make L’Imperator look formidable.

L’Imperator was ninth June 10 in the Manhattan but was beaten only a little more than five lengths in that Grade 1 contest. Sent to the lead, as he was in the Fort Marcy, L’Imperator led to midstretch in his most recent race, the Grade 2 Bowling Green on July 31, before settling for third behind Rockemperor and Arklow, both established Grade 1 grass horses.

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While the Monmouth turf figures to be no worse than good on Saturday, the competition L’Imperator faces is far softer than he’s recently met. He’s yet to win beyond 1 1/4 miles, but the 1 3/8-mile Bowling Green was his first start at a trip longer than that, and at this level the 5-year-old gelding should see out the mile and a half.

His main competition could come from a fellow French-bred, Sa’ad, a 4-year-old colt who might, if anything, prefer a distance even longer than 1 1/2 miles. Sa’ad apparently was imported from France as a jump-racing prospect since, after winning over 1 1/2 miles on the flat making his North American debut at Great Meadow in May, he twice tried hurdling this summer at Colonial Downs.

After being soundly beaten in both starts, Sa’ad stayed in an off-turf renewal of the John’s Call at Saratoga last month and failed to handle dirt while essentially eased across the finish. In France, he was listed-stakes class at this distance, and he won’t beat L’Imperator if the latter stays.

The one other win candidate is Oceans Map, who also ran poorly in the off-turf Johns Call and hit a high-water mark a year ago winning the Cape Henlopen over 1 1/2 miles.

The Presious Passion is carded as race 9 with post time set for 4:12 p.m. Eastern.