Gloria de Campeao injured, retired

Gloria de Campeao, winner of the Dubai World Cup, has been retired after suffering a tear to his left front tendon during a workout last Tuesday morning on the Chantilly gallops. The Brazilian-bred winner of the richest race in the history of the Thoroughbred racing this past March – the $10 million World Cup on the Tapeta surface at Meydan – Gloria de Campeao had been preparing for Australia’s Cox Plate when he was injured.

A 7-year-old son of the Argentine Rubiano stallion Impression, Gloria de Campeao was trained in France by Pascal Bary for his Brazil based Swedish owner, Stefan Friborg. Gloria de Campeao eked out a nose victory over Lizard’s Desire in the Dubai World Cup but was beaten a halflength by the same horse on May 16 in his final start, the Singapore Airlines International Cup, a race he had won in 2009. Fourteen lengths second to Well Armed in the last World Cup run on the Nad Al Sheba dirt course in 2009, Gloria de Campeao was also a Group 2 winner in Brzail on turf. In his lone appearance in America, he finished seventh behind Gio Ponti in last year’s Arlington Million. He retires having won 9 races from 24 starts for earnings of $9,258,265, making him the richest horse ever bred in South America.

At the same time, Gloria de Campeao’s arch rival, Lizard’s Desire, is fighting for his life in Dubai, where the Mike de Kock-trained South African-bred is suffering from laminitis. In between his races in Dubai and Singapore, Lizard’s Desire had finished a neck second to Viva Pataca in the Queen Elizabeth II Cup at Sha Tin.