Lawrence savors first Grade 1 win with Glorious Empire

Trainer Chuck Lawrence had won big races at Saratoga prior to Glorious Empire’s victory last Saturday in the Grade 1 Sword Dancer – just not in a long time, and never while watching from the grandstand.

Between 1982 and 1994, Lawrence won 136 races as a steeplechase jockey, including the New York Turf Writers Cup at Saratoga aboard Warm Spell in 1993 and on Chief of the Clan in 1987. He also rode Warm Spell to victory in the 1994 Breeders’ Cup Grand National at Far Hills, the year the horse was voted an Eclipse Award.

As a trainer, Lawrence has won 414 races. The $1 million Sword Dancer is his first Grade 1 and his fourth graded victory overall. Glorious Empire gave Lawrence his third when he held on for a dead-heat win in the Grade 2 Bowling Green in July at Saratoga.

Lawrence’s grandfather was a horse trainer, and his father trained as a hobby. But when Lawrence was growing up, he wanted to ride.

“It was always my dream,” Lawrence said. “I started out at Charles Town, but I was too big.”

An owner soon gave him a sage bit of advice.

“He told me to go to work for Burley Cocks,” Lawrence said.

The late steeplechase trainer W. Burling Cocks won the American Grand National six times and the New York Turf Writers Cup five times. He was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 1985.

“I went over a few jumps, and he let me ride one in a race,” Lawrence said. “I finished second, and he gave me a job.”

The life of a steeplechase jockey is different from that of a flat rider.

“You do everything,” Lawrence said. “You drive the vans, you do the weed-whacking, their legs, you name it. But I loved it all.”

Lawrence learned a lot from Cocks and fellow Hall of Famer Daniel “Mikey” Smithwick.

“Burley was one of those guys who could walk down the shed row and see something was wrong with a horse before he got in the stall,” Lawrence said. “I’ve used a lot of Mikey’s stuff on Glorious Empire.”

Lawrence retired sound from his riding career. Kind of, anyway.

“I broke my collarbone six times, broke my heel, but I was never scared riding,” he said. “The only thing that scared me was losing.”

Lawrence has a lot of fond memories from those days. He tells a story about a group who once stole the Travers canoe out of the infield lake and then had to figure out what to do with it. The canoe ended up in the swimming pool of steeplechase owner Beverly Steinman. One of the perpetrators promptly called the police and reported Steinman had stolen the canoe.

“All I know is the headline in the paper the next day was ‘Much ado about the canoe,’ ” Lawrence said.

Lawrence, 52, has a 30-horse stable at Fair Hill in Elkton, Md. The facility has a one-mile dirt track, a seven-furlong Tapeta surface, a seven-eighths turf course, and miles of cross-country options. Last week, Lawrence, Graham Motion, Michael Matz, Mike Stidham, Mike Trombetta, and Tres Abbott all won races in the region with horses based at Fair Hill.

“There’s a lot of ways to train there,” Lawrence said.

Glorious Empire is a 7-year-old Irish-bred gelding. In addition to his four wins in the U.S., he has won in Britain and Hong Kong. Owner Matt Schera claimed him for $62,500 last year at Saratoga. Following a bleeding incident and a layoff, he was turned over to Lawrence early this year.

The key to Glorious Empire’s development, according to Lawrence, has been trying longer distances and getting him to relax.

“He had the talent, it was just figuring out his game,” Lawrence said.

Glorious Empire can be stubborn, and Lawrence tries to let him have his way as much as possible.

“People like to tell horses what to do, but that doesn’t work with him,” Lawrence said. “He doesn’t like to do certain things. We saddle him on the walk, and we will ask him to stand still for a brief second. But we walk when he wants to walk.”