Oaklawn Park racegoers saw Classic Empire at top form April 15 when he won the Grade 1 $1 million Arkansas Derby.
Unfortunately, the Pioneerof the Nile colt won no other races in a star-crossed 3-year-old season that has ended.
It was announced Wednesday that last year's male juvenile champion would retire to Coolmore America's Ashford Stud in Kentucky. Owned by John Oxley, a Tulsa, Okla., oilman, and trained by Mark Casse, Classic Empire had not raced since finishing second by a head to Cloud Computing in the May 20 Preakness. A planned start in the June 10 Belmont Stakes fell through because of an abscess in his right front hoof, which became a recurring setback.
"Unfortunately, we just ran out of time to get him to the (Nov. 4) Breeders' Cup Classic," Casse said. "I could never get him completely over his foot abscess and it wasn't possible to train him the way I needed in order to bring him back at the highest level, which is where the deserved to be. ... I still believe he was the most talented horse of his generation."
After a hectic winter and spring campaign, Classic Empire finished a troubled fourth in the May 6 Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs.
He suffered an abscess in the Feb. 4 Grade 2 Holy Bull at Gulfstream Park, missing a scheduled start in Florida, and twice refused to train. After a visit to the Ocala, Fla., farm where he was broken as a baby, Classic Empire came to Oaklawn in April needing points to make the Kentucky Derby field.
With Julien Leparoux aboard, Classic Empire won the Arkansas Derby by a half-length. But his bad luck returned in the Kentucky Derby when clobbered out of the gate by McCraken in a chain-reaction bumping incident
Classic Empire then put away Kentucky Derby winner Always Dreaming in the Preakness before falling prey to the late kick of Cloud Computing. Classic Empire never started again with plans to race in the Travers and Pennsylvania Derby falling through.
He retires with five wins from nine starts with $2,520,220 in earnings. As a 2-year-old, he paired Grade 1 victories in the Breeders' Futurity at Keeneland and the Breeders' Cup Juvenile at Santa Anita.
Sports on 10/19/2017