Grade 3 winner Fiftyshadesofgold retired

Fiftyshadesofgold, who won the Grade 3 Eight Belles Stakes on the Kentucky Oaks undercard earlier this year, has been retired by owner Doug Scharbauer’s Valor Farm due to a tear in her left fore suspensory.

The 3-year-old Texas-bred daughter of My Golden Song finished fifth in the Grade 3 Dogwood Stakes on Sept. 20 at Churchill Downs. Her foreleg swelled up several days after the race and an ultrasound revealed the suspensory tear, according to a release from Valor Farm. The filly retires with four wins in nine starts and $420,521. She won the Debutante Stakes and the Two Altazano Stakes as a juvenile and placed in two graded stakes in her career.

Fiftyshadesofgold was bred and owned by prominent Texas horseman Clarence Scharbauer Jr., who died in February, and subsequently owned and raced by his son, Doug. She was trained by Bret Calhoun.

“Fiftyshadesofgold was certainly one of the best I’ve ever trained,” Calhoun said in the Valor Farm release. “She was the total package – a grand individual, was very fast and could carry [her speed], had a great mind and a big heart to go with it.”

Fiftyshadesofgold is out of the winning Hadif mare Hadif Cat, and is a half-sister to stakes winners Sword Trick and Tastefullyxcessive, both by Early Flyer. Another relative, the 2-year-old Silver City gelding Silverhill, placed in the Grade 3 Bashford Manor last summer for Scharbauer and Calhoun and is currently training at Lone Star.

“Of course, I’m disappointed that her racing career is over, but more than that, I’m so glad that Fiftyshadesofgold is sound and can go on to the breeding shed,” Doug Scharbauer said. “Given her talent and looks, I think she will make a great broodmare.”