The daughter of Pulpit beat Marathon Lady in the mile and an eighth Grade II $500,000 Black-Eyed Susan Stakes at Pimlico Race Course on May 17, 2013.
[1] Fiftyshadesofhay began her racing career on September 1, 2012, in a $70,000 Maiden Special Weight at Del Mar racetrack at five and a half furlongs on synthetic.
[4] In her fourth attempt at a Maiden Special Weight race, on November 22, 2012, she ran at a distance of one mile and one sixteenth at Hollywood Park Racetrack for $45,000.
[5] In her three-year-old debut, Fiftyshadesofhay's connections tested her on the grass on New Year's Day in the $75,000 Blue Norther Stakes at Santa Anita Park at a mile.
[7] Fiftyshadesofhay's connections decided to step up in class and race her against the best fillies in the western half of the country in the $250,000 Grade 1 Las Virgenes Stakes at Santa Anita Park at a mile on the dirt.
[9] On May 17, 2013, trainer Bob Baffert and owners Mike Pegram, Karl Watson and Paul Weitman decided to ship Fiftyshadesofhay to Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Maryland, to run in the second jewel of de facto Filly Triple Crown, the $500,000 Grade 2 Black-Eyed Susan Stakes.
In that one mile and one eighth race on dirt, Fiftyshadesofhay broke second under new jockey Joel Rosario but was quickly subdued and settled into sixth place passing the stands for the first time under the wire.
Just after the sixteenth pole, she collared Marathon Lady and surged near the wire to win the 89th running of the Black-Eyed Susan Stakes by a neck in a time of 1:52.73.