Claimer Turned Grade I Winner Glorious Empire Retired

[Wandering Eyes]

Matthew Schera’s Glorious Empire (Ire) (Holy Roman Emperor {Ire}), who won the 2018 GI Sword Dancer S. a handful of races removed from a victory in a Saratoga $50,000 claimer, has been retired from racing, according to trainer James F. ‘Chuck’ Lawrence II. The 9-year-old gelding left the Fair Hill Training Center early last month for a farm owned by Lawrence’s mother in Marshall, VA, about an hour and a half west of Laurel Park.

“He seems quite happy with his new lifestyle,” Lawrence told the Laurel media office. “We just kept him here at the barn and let him down, trying to make up our mind exactly what we wanted to do. For right now we have him turned out down at my mom’s in Virginia with another retiree and they’re loving it.”

Winner of four of his first six career starts in England for trainer Ed Walker and owner Siu Pak Kwan, Glorious Empire was sent to Hong Kong and won one of two starts for trainer Caspar Fownes, but was found to have bled and was returned to Europe. Returned to Walker for a single English start in 2016, he was found to have suffered another bleeding incident and was imported to the U.S.

Claimed by Schera for $62,500 at Belmont in May 2017, Glorious Empire hit his straps the following summer, dead-heating for the win in the GII Bowling Green S. before causing front-running upset in the Sword Dancer (video). He posted his final career victory in the GII Fort Lauderdale S. in December 2018 and retires with 10 wins from 28 starts and earnings of $977,227.

“He just wasn’t showing me the same desire that he had after coming back from the injury,” Lawrence said. “Edgar Prado thought that he was really protecting himself, even though he seemed good. You don’t want to take a chance with a horse that’s won a Grade I, so we made the decision to let him have a good retirement.”

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