After intense discussions with Darley Racing Australian managers, Sydney trainer Peter Snowden has today confirmed that star mare Beaded will continue racing for another season before being retired as a broodmare.
Beaded has been confirmed to race on for another season before heading to stud
The six-time Group 1 placegetter and one-time elite level winning daughter of Lonhro showed true grit when running a devastatingly close second to Stuart Webb’s filly Yosei in the $500,000 Group 1 Tattersall’s Tiara (1400m) last Saturday at Eagle Farm.
It was the eighth time Beaded had run at the highest level, her record at the top now showing three seconds, a hat-trick of thirds, one fourth – to date her only finish out of the money in the 2010 Stradbroke Handicap- and a win when the five-year-old broke her Group 1 duck in the Doomben 10,000 last month.
Having earned over $1.5 million in career prize money for her connections, including owner Sheikh Mohammed, Beaded makes a very valuable prospect as a broodmare.
But imminent retirement plans have officially been shelved for now, Beaded to take to the track for a final season starting with the upcoming Sydney and Melbourne Spring Racing Carnivals.
The decision for the freakishly consistent Beaded to return for a final season was in part made with the knowledge that Peter Moody’s seemingly unbeatable mare Black Caviar would be heading overseas for next year’s Royal Ascot carnival.
With Black Caviar racing internationally and the country’s other boom sprinter Hay List under an injury-cloud due to a leg infection putting the John McNair-trained galloper’s spring plans in doubt, there is a real chance Beaded can add more Group glory in the sprint features to her name before retirement.
“You never make plans around one horse,” Snowden explained.
“But it seems Black Caviar may be going to England next year and there is a cloud hanging over Hay List.”
It was not only the absence of her main racing rivals, but also the way Beaded raced so competitively in the Tattersall’s Tiara after a long and testing autumn – winter campaign that was behind the decision to continue her career on the turf.
“Beaded has retained her absolute competitiveness,” Snowden said with pride.
“She loves the fight on the track as you saw on Saturday.”
After having tackled three straight Group 1 races during the Brisbane Winter Carnival, Beaded will now head to the paddock for a well earned spell before being bought back for the spring.
“She’ll have six weeks off and come back for a light campaign late in the spring,” Snowden said.
Looking further into the future, Snowden said Beaded would also appear in the Sydney and Melbourne Autumn features before running her final races at next year’s Brisbane Winter Carnival which would give her the chance to defend her Doomben 10,000 title and also give her a third and final chance to take out Queensland’s richest sprint, the $1 million Group 1 Stradbroke Handicap (1400m).
“Then (after the spring) we’ll aim at Sydney in the autumn and probably another campaign in Brisbane next winter before she goes to stud,” Snowden said.
In her first Stradbroke attempt Beaded ran fourth to dual champion Black Piranha in 2010 and then this year she came within a half-head of Stephen Farley’s impressive three-year-old winner Sincero.
