Glorious Empire Helps Irish Breeder Gain Traction

Glorious Empire, the impressive winner of the Dec. 15 Fort Lauderdale Stakes (G2T) at Gulfstream Park, has been trained in five different stables on three different continents and has scored on all of them.

The 7-year-old Holy Roman Emperor gelding was initially trained in Britain by Ed Walker, for whom he won four of his first six starts in 2013-14, including competitive Newmarket handicaps.

Those efforts attracted the attention of regular Hong Kong buyers, and he was whisked off to Caspar Fownes' string in Asia, where he won on debut in 2015 for owner PK Siu but in his second start tailed off when he bled.

Glorious Empire was returned to Walker but burst a blood vessel again when pulled up in the Bunbury Cup at Newmarket in July 2016. This time he was transferred to the U.S., where he could be administered race-day Lasix, a diuretic used to control bleeding.

Having spent some time plying his trade in claimers for Siu, he was claimed in May of 2017 for owner Matthew Schera. Glorious Empire has risen to become one of the best turf performers in the United States since Schera transferred to him trainer James Lawrence II this season.

He dead-heated for the win in the July 28 Bowling Green Stakes (G2T) at Saratoga Race Course and earned grade 1 laurels with a decisive all-the-way victory in the Sword Dancer Stakes back at Saratoga a month later.

He cut the early pace in the Longines Breeders' Cup Turf (G1T) last month but eventually finished last behind Enable, before returning to his very best in the Fort Lauderdale Saturday, slipping the field to beat Qurbaan by 2 1/2 lengths.

But this twisty tale of globetrotting glory started just outside the quiet town of Cloghan in County Offaly. It is there, at his Killourney Mor Farm, that Pat Grogan bred the horse whose storied career has earned plenty of column inches in racing publications around the world. Pat's son Eoghan, who manages the stud, takes up the story.

"My father founded the farm," he says. "He's a builder by trade and was once owed a few quid by a fella who settled the debt with a horse. She was a National Hunt broodmare and wasn't very good, but Dad had been bitten by the bug.

"He then bought a couple of mares from Pat Gilson and one of them was Don't Care, a daughter of Nordico who was in foal to Rossini. Six months later, she gave birth to a colt and that turned out to be Tournedos, who we sold for €23,000 and who went on to win the Betfair Molecomb Stakes (G3) at Glorious Goodwood and finished second in the Windsor Castle Stakes and Flying Childers (G2)."

As ever in the bloodstock world, success snowballed from there.

"It was Don't Care who got us on the road," Grogan continues. "We had some big prices for foals out of her—€240,000 for a Rock Of Gibraltar colt (Reggae Dancer), €115,000 for a Hawk Wing filly and so on.

"So we got in the market for a couple more mares, and Eddie Fitzpatrick of Coolmore mentioned he might have a horse of interest to us.

"She turned out to be Glorious Empire's dam Humble And Proud. She'd suffered a nasty hind leg injury as a 2-year-old at Aidan O'Brien's, so wasn't able to race.

"Dad bought her privately and then covered her with Holy Roman Emperor. She's a big, scopey mare, and we really loved Holy Roman Emperor as a racehorse—he was a great 2-year-old—and he suited her physically. The result was Glorious Empire."

Humble And Proud is a half sister to listed winner and King Edward VII Stakes (G2) runner-up Delsarte out of the listed-placed Machiavellian mare Delauncy, who in turn is out of Gerald Leigh's Kikuka Sho Park Hill Stakes (G2) scorer Casey. It is also the family of Prix de l'Abbaye de Longchamp Majestic Barriere (G1)-winning half brothers Avonbridge and Patavellian.

Equipped with that pedigree and an attractive physique—despite being the mare's first produce, he was "a big, fine strapping colt with loads of scope," says Grogan—there was inevitably a sense of deflation when Glorious Empire made just €20,000 (US$27,268) at the Goffs November Foal Sale in 2011.

"We were disappointed with the price but the market was on its knees back then so we just had to sell," Grogan adds. "Ed Sackville bought him and he promised us on the day he was going to a very good home. He wasn't wrong. He went to Whatton Manor Stud and they did a fantastic job with him."

It was Whatton Manor who resold Glorious Empire to Sackville's business partner Alastair Donald for 90,000 guineas ($151,881) at Book 2 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale, to enter training with Walker for original owners Judy Yap and Salina Yang.

Early reports of Glorious Empire's talent informed the Grogans' future mating plans for Humble And Proud.

"I'd rung Ed Walker before Glorious Empire ran and he told me he was a proper horse, so we went back to Holy Roman Emperor with the mare on the strength of it," Grogan says. "Indeed, it looked as though the horse was on the verge of black type in Britain so it was initially disappointing for us that he went to Hong Kong, but he won first time out there.

"And then, of course, he bled. I thought that was the end of Glorious Empire, but he sure came back with a bang."

The results of Humble And Proud's repeat matings with Holy Roman Emperor are Outside Inside, a 3-year-old filly who won a Gowran Park maiden for Willie McCreery last year; and Thebeastfortheeast, a 2-year-old colt who signaled he might have some of his brother Glorious Empire's talent by making all to comfortably win a Dundalk maiden for Richard O'Brien last month.

"Richard thinks he's a group horse and he's not sure he'll be able to keep hold of him," reports Grogan. "He'd be in strong demand.

"It's a family on the up. Humble And Proud's half sister Regina Mundi is the dam of Rocques, who won the group 3 Prix d'Aumale this year. She started favorite for the Prix Marcel Boussac (G1) and was only beaten two lengths."

Humble And Proud is in foal to Galileo Gold and will "in all probability" return to Holy Roman Emperor next year.