Glamour mare Beaded has run her last race, leaving Darley without a second Group One-winning sprinter heading into the new racing season.
A $1.6 million earner, Beaded closed out her racing career when unplaced in the Doomben 10,000 at the weekend.
Darley trainer Peter Snowden said Beaded had nothing more to prove as Lonhro’s second-highest stakes earner behind two-year-old triple crown winner Pierro.
“She owes us nothing and deserves to go stud,” he said.
“She was as big as an ant, but fought well above her weight and gave everything in all of her races.”
Beaded’s crowning racetrack moment came with her win in last year’s Doomben 10,000, one of her 10 victories in three Australian states.
She was placed in another five Group One races, including the Newmarket Handicap to Black Caviar.
Her retirement comes after Darley announced on Monday the four-time Group One winner Sepoy would stand his first season at stud during the 2012 Australian breeding season.
Sepoy is scheduled for a farewell to racing in the Darley-sponsored July Cup at Newmarket, England.
Beaded is set to visit Darley’s well-credentialled United States stallion Street Cry, the sire of 13 individual Group One winners including Melbourne Cup hero Shocking.
