(Edited Meadowlands Racetrack report)

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – Entering horses to race in the Garden State is familiar territory for trainer Mary Hartmann. 

On a perennial basis her barn is among the leaders in sending more horses to the post at Monmouth Park and the Meadowlands than any other outfit.  But this afternoon she found herself on new ground, entering a horse in the Breeders’ Cup, a lifetime goal for many conditioners and a dream come true for Hartmann, a fixture on the New Jersey racing scene for several decades.

Before hanging up her own shingle in 1997, Hartmann spent years working for J.J. Crupi, a top trainer in New Jersey for decades.  Hartmann was thrust onto the national scene in 2008 when Presious Passion led every step in the Grade 1 United Nations.  That was last year, and the connections decided to pass on the Breeders’ Cup.

Fast forward one year and insert the same scenario – Presious Passion leads every step in the Grade 1 United Nations.  This year, however, a trip to the west coast was more than warranted for Presious Passion, who’s earned over $2 million in his career.

In addition to his U.N. victory in July of this year, Presious Passion has scored graded stakes wins in the MacDiarmida (Grade 2) and Clement Hirsch (Grade 1), the latter over the same Santa Anita course that this year’s Breeders’ Cup will be contested.

Presious Passion’s only off the board finish this season came in the Arlington Million, when rains downgraded the turf condition to good, a surface that has proven to the extreme disliking of the 6-year-old gelding.

From 41 lifetime outings, Presious Passion has a record of 13-6-2, three of those wins coming at the mile and a half distance he’ll travel in Saturday’s Turf Classic.  This year marks his fifth season of racing.  He debuted on Meadowlands turf on Nov. 12, 2005, finishing fifth, beaten three lengths for it all.  In March of the following year he broke his maiden, that in a $62,500 claiming event at Gulfstream.  He has not run for a tag since.