Great Wide Open goes straight to lead, wins Buddy Diliberto

If he keeps running like this the future is wide open for Great Wide Open.

That’s a strange thing to say about a gelding soon to turn 7, but Great Wide Open hit peak form last fall, rising as high as a second-place finish in the Grade 1 Shadwell Turf Mile, and is showing no sign of slipping.

On Saturday at Fair Grounds he turned in another sterling performance, going straight to the lead and kicking clear to win the $75,000 Buddy Diliberto Memorial Stakes by 4 1/2 lengths.

Setting even splits of 24.20, 48.17, and 1:12.20 under James Graham, Great Wide Open, despite pulling a touch too hard down the backstretch, let fly a burst at the top of the homestretch and the Diliberto was over. He cruised under the wire a solo act, running about 1 1/16 miles on good turf in 1:41.47, paying $5.40 as the favorite.

Second-choice Big Changes chased from second the entire trip and landed the place by a half-length over Sir Dudley Digges. Jockey Ricardo Santana pulled up Oscar Nominated at the top of the stretch, but the 5-year-old was able to walk off the course to be unsaddled.

Irish-bred Great Wide Open long was a useful horse for trainer Conor Murphy (who celebrated Saturday’s win back home in Ireland) and owners M and J Thoroughbreds and Riverside Bloodstock, but has really come around while forging a partnership with Graham earlier this year.

“He was a little more aggressive than I’d have liked him to be today,” Graham said. “He’s a horse that likes to be left alone; you have to let him do his job.”

Thirty-eight races into a successful career, Great Wide Open has moved into a corner office. We’ll see where he takes it from here.

Beau Recall last to first in Blushing K. D.

Shaun Bridghoman saved ground, waiting and waiting for the far turn of the Fair Grounds turf course to straightin into the homestretch. His mount, Beau Recall, had one horse beat when the bend turned straight, but a quarter-mile later she had no one in in front of her.

Finishing with a flourish following Bridgmohan's patient move to the far outside, Beau Recall cut down everything inside her and won the $75,000 Blushing K. D. Stakes by a half-length. She ran about 1 1/16 miles over a "good" turf course in a snappy 1:41.71 and paid $12.20 to win. Vagabond Princess finished second, a head in front of Dubara in a race dominated by outside closers. Among those caught up in a half-mile split of 47.51 that apparently was taxing was Take These Chains, the 6-5 favorite, Beau Recall's stablemate, and the eventual sixth-place finisher.

While the bettors went crazy for the one Brad Cox-trained horse they somewhat overlooked the other. Beau Recall, based in California before this start, was coming out of Grade 2 and Grade 1 races, taking a meaningful drop in class, and while her owners, Slam Dunk Racing and Medallion Racing, have plans to retire the filly as a broodmare this winter, they gave Cox a chance to do some good with her before Beau Recall heads to the breeding shed.

"We expected her to run big," Cox said. "She came in about five weeks ago. She was getting a little better each week."

She was really good Saturday, getting her last quarter-mile in about 23 seconds.

Beau Recall is a 4-year-old Irish-bred filly by Sir Prancealot out of Greta d'Argent, by Great Commotion. She won for the fourth time in 19 starts and probably will be sold at auction in January, according to Phillip Shelton, manager of Medallion Racing.