Bracket Buster. (EQUI-PHOTO)
Brown Wins Two Stakes On Saturday’s Haskell Preview Day
Tom Luicci/Monmouth Park
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.
Redistricting, the odds-on favorite, cruised to a five-length win in the $150,000 Monmouth Stakes – the eighth time since 2017 that Brown has won the race. Redistricting had come out of five straight graded stakes races, taking full advantage of the class relief and showing a new dimension by going gate-to-wire.
The time for the mile and an eighth over a turf course labelled good was 1:49.78.
“This was an easier race for him,” said winning jockey Flavien Prat. “I think he really liked having a little moisture in the turf. He broke well and he was comfortable, so I just let him relax on the lead.”
Redistricting paid $2.60 to win.
Brown added more trophy hardware in the Eatontown Stakes when Whiskey Decision out-finished stablemate Maggie Go in the Grade 3 grass race at a mile and a sixteenth. It’s the fifth time Brown has won the race.
Whiskey Decision, a 4-year-old filly, was recently transferred to Browns barn from Arnaud Delacour’s and had been idle since Nov. 8.
She paid $10 to win. Her winning time was 1:44.81.
Bishops Bay, the odds-on favorite in the Grade 3 Salvator Mile, toyed with his rivals, rolling to a five-length win. The 5-year-old son of Uncle Mo posted his seventh career win – to go along with three seconds – from 10 lifetime starts.
“He’s such a professional horse,” said winning rider Prat. “I think he’s getting better race after race. He is very nice to be around. I don’t think the (sloppy) track affected him. This is his running style. He likes to be on the lead. He’s very athletic. He was forwardly placed and very comfortable.
“He seems to be gaining confidence and he understands what he needs to do when he gets on the track. Some horses show improvement like he has as a 5-year-old. He hasn’t really run much before this, so he has had room to improve. It’s not like he is 5 years old, and he has run in a ton of races.”
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.
Bracket Buster paid $9.60 to win.
“I wasn’t worried about him going in the slop again (after a 7th place finish in the slop at Churchill Downs in his last start on May 3),” said Oliver. “That was a deep slop. The track was real sticky and cuppy and water got underneath it. It was a different type of slop. So, I was willing to give him another chance on an off track.
“I think the track actually helped him because it looked to be speed favoring. I said to Axel (Concepcion) that there was another speed horse in the race, but he doesn’t have to have the lead. If he breaks well and you inherit it take it, but don’t send him out of there and run him off of his feet. He’s so athletic he jumped out there on his own.”
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.”
