Wide Country

Wide Country (foal in 1988) was an American Thoroughbred racehorse who defeated both male and female competitors. She was bred in Maryland by Diana W. Carlson. She was a chestnut filly out of the mare, Bazooka Babe. Her sire was Magesterial, the multiple stakes winning son of U.S. Racing Hall of Fame inductee, Northern Dancer.^[1] Wide Country will best be remembered for her gutsy win in the slop in the Grade II $250,000 Black-Eyed Susan Stakes over stakes winners John's Decision and Nalees Pin on May 17, 1991.

Early racing career

During Wide Country's two year-old season she broke her maiden in her second attempt and followed that up with a win in an allowance race at Laurel Park. Late in her freshman year she won the Smart Angle Stakes, the Maryland Juvenile Filly Championship Stakes and the Heavenly Cause Stakes. In 1991 Tom Tanner's home bred, Wide Country proved to be an indomitable force running a win streak to eight straight wins in stakes races mostly at either Pimlico Race Course or Laurel Park Racecourse. The streak began in the final months of 1990 and continued well into 1991. Included in those stakes victories were the Caesar's Wish Stakes, the Genuine Risk Handicap at Belmont Park, the Jameela Stakes, the Flirtation Stakes, the All Brandy Stakes and the Twixt Stakes.

Black-Eyed Susan Stakes

Then it took on greater significance when the chestnut filly overcame adversity to win 67th Running of the Grade II $250,000 Black-Eyed Susan Stakes over a muddy race track after losing a shoe. The Black-Eyed Susan run on the third Friday of May each year is also called the de facto second jewel of the national "Filly Triple Crown" is run at a mile and one eighth. In that race Wide Country was listed as the slight morning line favorite at 5-2 just a head of Do It With Style who was listed at 3-1.^[2] That day skies opened with rain and lighnig threatened to push back or cancel the Black-Eyed Susan. In a sea mud Wide Country broke fair in mid-pack of the field of nine stakes winning fillies. Down the backstretch she moved three wide and broke open a huge lead. Down the stretch she struggled with the mud and held on to beat John's Decision by a neck.^[3] It was only another neck back to Nalee's Pin who finished third. Wide Country won the race in 1:51.26 and the 60% winner's share of the purse equaling $150,000. At the conclusion of the race Wide Country's career record stood an amazing ten wins and two seconds in 13 starts.^[4]

Later racing career

Later that season she went on to win the Grade 3 Pimlico Oaks by a romping eight and a half lengths. Wide Country shipped to Belmont Park and Meadowlands for a summer and fall campaign where she turned in victories in the Caesar's Wish Stakes, Genuine Risk Handicap and the Jameela Stakes and finished second in the Garden City Breeders' Cup Handicap. Trained by Robert W. Camac, Wide Country had fulfilled the promise she had shown at age two when she captured three more Maryland Stakes Races at the end of her sophomore season on her way to state-bred championship honors. At year end she was named Maryland-bred "Horse of the Year for 1991. At age four Wide Country had a near miss in the stakes feature on Presidents' Day in 1992, finishing only a neck behind the winner in the Barbara Fritchie Handicap at Laurel Park Racecourse. That day she was closing fast and fell just short at the wire to Wood So in the seven furlong grade two stakes race. That spring in late April, Wide Country posted her only major victory of the year when she won the grade two $125,000 Genuine Risk Handicap at Belmont Park in New York over six furlongs on the dirt. That summer in August she had a grade one stakes showing in the Maskette Stakes (now called the Go For Wand Handicap) finishing third to Easy Now in the one mile and an eighth race at Aqueduct Racetrack.

Honors

After her retirement, Laurel Park Racecourse named a race in honor, the Wide Country Stakes which is open to fillies age three years-old and up willing to race seven furlongs on the dirt every March.

What A Summer ended her career with a record of 12 wins out of 26 starts in her career. Her most memorable race was perhaps her dominating performance in the defacto second leg of the filly Triple Crown, the Black-Eyed Susan Stakes. In addition to her 12 wins she also placed five times with earnings of $881,221. That record of 17 first or second finishes in 26 starts at 65% is among the best of the decade.^[5]

References

• Wide Country's pedigree and partial racing stats