Grogan family building a glorious empire of global Group 1 success

Glorious Empire, the impressive winner of the Grade 2 Fort Lauderdale Stakes at Gulfstream on Saturday, has been trained in five different stables on three different continents and has scored on all of them.

The seven-year-old Holy Roman Emperor gelding was initially trained in Britain by Ed Walker, for whom he won four of his first six starts including in 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 for owner PK Siu but on his second start finished tailed off when it was found he had 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 US, where he could be administered race-day Lasix, the diuretic that helps control bleeding.

Having spent some time plying his trade in claimers, he has risen to become one of the best turf performers in the States since being transferred to trainer James Lawrence by owner Matthew Schera.

He dead-heated in the Grade 2 Bowling Green Stakes at Saratoga in July and earned Grade 1 laurels with a decisive all-the-way victory in the Sword Dancer Stakes back at the track a month later.

He cut out the early pace in the Breeders' Cup Turf last month to eventually finish last behind Enable, and was back to his very best in the Fort Lauderdale on Saturday, slipping the field to beat Qurbaan by two and a half 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.

Eoghan Grogan (right) with father Pat and a Camelot foal they sold for €180,000 who would become the winner Employer

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 Molecomb Stakes at Glorious Goodwood and finished second in the Windsor Castle Stakes and Flying Childers.”

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 two-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 two-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 runner-up Delsarte out of the Listed-placed Machiavellian mare Delauncy, who in turn is out of Gerald Leigh's Park Hill Stakes scorer Casey. It is also the family of Prix de l'Abbaye-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 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 90,000gns 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 three-year-old filly who won a Gowran Park maiden for Willie McCreery last year, and Thebeastfortheeast, a two-year-old colt who signalled 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 favourite for the Prix Marcel Boussac 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.

She is one of nine daughters of Cheveley Park Stud stalwart Pivotal to have been represented by a top-level winner this year, along with Enticing (One Master), Furbelow (Advertise), Halfway To Heaven (Magical and Rhododendron), Miss Meggy (Mabs Cross), Moneycantbuymelove (Mikki Rocket), Queenofthefairies (Fairyland), Rhadegunda (Cracksman) and Super Pie (Olmedo).

Grogan is honest in not claiming any special foresight in his father buying Humble And Proud on the strength of the identity of her sire.

“I didn't know at the time just how good Pivotal was,” he says, “but we can all see he's a phenomenal broodmare sire now.”

Humble And Proud is one of nine broodmares at Killourney Mor Farm, which has a remarkable record for being at the epicentre of worldwide Group 1 success.

Another resident is Danehill's daughter Close Regards, from whom the Grogans bred Magic Hurricane, a son of Hurricane Run who landed the Metropolitan at Randwick for John O'Shea and Godolphin in 2015.

No doubt, Glorious Empire is testament to the Grogans' keen eye for a future star producer and their expert rearing of the produce. But he also pays tribute to their pragmatic approach to selling foals when bloodstock economics work against you.

“The market is very polarised – if you've not got one by the right stallion you're on the back foot straight away,” says Grogan. “But if you have the right product you will make good money.

“It's not an easy game and the costs of transport and feed have gone up, but we're lucky we've had a few nice touches.

“In terms of starting off younger mares, it's tricky. You almost have to take the loss to get their foals to the track and fight their own corner in the hope they make the pedigree.”

In spite of a troubled rise to the top, Glorious Empire, a first foal who sold for a price that barely covered his covering fee but has become a Grade 1 winner, has done just that.

He ought to have ensured that future auction offerings out of Humble And Proud will reward the Grogans more richly in future.

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