Triple Group One-winning mare Daffodil has been retired.The 2009 AJC Australian Oaks winner will be mated with Waikato Stud stallion Pins in the coming breeding season, the stud's Mark Chittick said.The Chittick family own the No Excuse Needed mare."She has achieved a great deal on the track, winning Group Ones in Australia and New Zealand and she took a little longer to show a spring in her step after her last campaign, following a bit of wear and tear," Chittick said on the stud's website."Wit

Triple Group One-winning mare Daffodil has been retired.

The 2009 AJC Australian Oaks winner will be mated with Waikato Stud stallion Pins in the coming breeding season, the stud's Mark Chittick said.

The Chittick family own the No Excuse Needed mare.

"She has achieved a great deal on the track, winning Group Ones in Australia and New Zealand and she took a little longer to show a spring in her step after her last campaign, following a bit of wear and tear," Chittick said on the stud's website.

"With stakes as they are, she would now need to win a race like the Caulfield Cup and a good colt by Pins might bring a similar result."

Daffodil, who was out of the Chitticks' smart mare Spring, was trained by Kevin Gray at Palmerston North throughout her career.

She won the Group One Thousand Guineas as a three-year-old and looked a certainty beaten in the New Zealand Oaks when her gate failed to open properly. She roared home for fourth.

She was set for the AJC Australian Oaks in the autumn and cruised away with the 2400m classic, relishing the cut out of the Randwick track in the hands of Hugh Bowman.

Last spring, she won the Group One Windsor Park Plate (1600m) at Hastings.

She was fourth in the Kelt Stakes and then ran a top fourth in the Caulfield Cup. She received a chequered run in the Melbourne Cup, finishing midfield.

She appeared four times earlier this year with a first-up win at New Plymouth and a placing in the Group One Otaki-Maori weight-for-age before a final Australian visit that resulted in a close fourth in the Group One Ranvet Stakes and a fifth in the Group One BMW.

Daffodil won eight races and was placed six times from 26 starts for prizemoney of $A963,667.