Whoa there!
Spec violation. Not guaranteed to work. Might work some days but not others.
Btw, where can I find the spec? And where in the spec can I read about this? Is this true even if we know the MMC supports 52 MHz?
You can use http://bugmenot.com/view/jedec.org to get free-to-use credentials.
The section in point is "A.6.1Bus initialization".
I'd say that if your MMC works fine going full-speed out of the gate and the IC on the board supports this speed, then you unlikely to encounter any issues.
Btw, where can I find the spec? And where in the spec can I read about this? Is this true even if we know the MMC supports 52 MHz?