Monmouth Park Press Release By Tom Luicci
OCEANPORT, N.J. – Bracket Buster wasn’t quite ready to join his contemporaries on the Triple Crown trail in the spring, but the Vicki Oliver-trained colt may have positioned himself to start making amends over the second half of the racing season.
Put on the lead early by jockey Axel Concepcion, Bracket Buster shook off a prolonged challenge from Wildncrazynight, pulling away to an impressive seven-length win in Saturday’s $150,000 NYRA Bets Pegasus Stakes at Monmouth Park.
The top two finishers in the race – longshot Wildncrazynight held for second – receive free entry and start fees to the Grade 1 NYRA Haskell Stakes on July 19.
That could be Bracket Buster’s next start.
“I think he is starting to figure things out,” said Oliver. “He was still a little green. His ears were up the whole time. He’s learning. But he’s also a really nice horse. I think the world of him. And I think he is going to keep improving.”
The winning time for the mile and a sixteenth over a sloppy/sealed track was 1:44.64.
Overall, the Haskell Preview Day card showcased four sharp winning efforts, with trainer Chad Brown winning the two turf stakes races and trainer Brad Cox capturing the Salvator Mile with the nearly-flawless Bishops Bay.As it turned out, Bracket Buster provided the biggest surprise, if only because 3-5 favorite Garamond was never involved, finishing last in the five-horse Pegasus field.
Concepcion admitted he was surprised not to see Garamond on the front with him.
“I thought (Garamond) had more speed than I did but my horse put me on the lead right away and stayed there,” he said.
The win was Bracket Buster’s first in stakes company and was his second victory from seven career starts.
Oliver, who worked in the Monmouth Park publicity office in 1997, then saddled her first career winner at the Jersey Shore track in 1998, said the Haskell was now on her radar. She trained at Monmouth Park for 10 years early in her career.
“We’ll see how he comes out of it,” she said. “Horses are one day at a time. It would be pretty unbelievable for me to have a horse in the Haskell. I started my career at Monmouth and spent a lot of years here. It would just be a great thing.”
