BBN’s Bracket Buster takes $400K Oklahoma Derby
Vicki Oliver becomes first female trainer to win OK’s biggest race
Edited Remington Park press release. Duston Orona Photography/Remington Park photos
OKLAHOMA CITY – After 37-runnings of the Grade 3, $400,000 Oklahoma Derby, Vicki Oliver shattered the glass ceiling, becoming the first female trainer to win the event when her 2-5 favorite Bracket Buster crossed the finish line first Sunday night at Remington Park.
“He ran really well,” said Oliver, speaking by phone Sunday morning before she caught her flight back to Kentucky. “He was due for that effort. Actually, he’s run these efforts in all his races. Unfortunately, he just ran into better horses such as Sovereignty and Journalism. He finally got his day where he was the better one of the bunch.”
While the main thing is Bracket Buster earning his first graded-stakes victory, Oliver’s happy to forever be the first female trainer to win the Oklahoma Derby.
“I was actually wondering that,” she said. “At least you make some history. I’ll take it.”
Oliver said the Oklahoma Derby offered an ideal five-weeks spacing since Bracket Buster was second behind Sovereignty in Saratoga’s $1.25 million Travers (G1). She said she has no next start planned.
“We might find one more race before the end of the year, or put him away to bring him back in the spring,” she said.
In the Oklahoma Derby, jockey Luis Saez said he knew he had a class horse after Bracket Buster ran second to Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes winner Sovereignty in the Travers. He lost by 10 lengths to the top 3-year-old in the country but beat the rest of the field by 10-3/4 lengths.
“He is a pretty talented horse,” Saez said after winning his third race on the card. “Today’s race came up pretty easy, and I was very comfortable about his chances.”
The victory in the Oklahoma Derby was by a margin of 3-1/4 lengths over Steve Asmussen trainee, Iron Dome, the 4-1 second betting favorite. Iron Dome came into the Oklahoma Derby on a three-race winning streak with the average margin of victory in those races of more than nine lengths. The local horse, Mister Omaha (12-1), with connections of Oklahoma Horse Racing Hall of Famers, trainer Joe Offolter and jockey Luis Quinonez, was good enough for third. He was 4-3/4 lengths ahead of Publisher (5-1), Asmussen’s other entry who finished fourth and who has earned a nearly a half-million dollars without winning a race yet in his career.
The rest of the order of finish was Hot Gunner (179-1) fifth, Colonel Yorke (55-1) sixth, and Take Charge Tom (11-1) who did not finish the race and was pulled up at the top of the stretch.
Bracket Buster paid $2.80 to win, $2.10 to place and $2.10 to show. He earned $240,000 for owners BBN Racing of Paris, Ky.
Bracket Buster’s winning time for the 1-1/8 miles derby over the fast main track was 1:49.99. Saez positioned him second for a mile of the race, just off the front-running Mister Omaha. Saez pounced turning for home and had a four-length lead at the top of the stretch. He ran just behind fractions of :23.81 for the first quarter-mile, :48.04 for the half-mile, 1:12.41 for three quarters of a mile. He had the mile in 1:36.81.
Bracket Buster’s record improved to 10 starts, three wins, two seconds and one third for a bankroll of $776,318. He earned his first victory at Oliver’s Keeneland base last fall, then was fifth in Churchill Downs’ Street Sense. Sovereignty won by five lengths that day, followed by the eventual winners of the G2 Louisiana Derby (runner-up Tiztastic) and G1 Arkansas Derby (third-place Sandman). Bracket Buster then was second at 25-1 behind Preakness and Haskell runner-up Gosger in Keeneland’s Stonestreet Lexington and won Monmouth Park’s Pegasus before finishing fourth in the Haskell won by Journalism.
The son of Keeneland’s 2019 Toyota Blue Grass winner Vekoma was bred by David Baxter. He was purchased at auction twice, going for $160,000 at the Keeneland Association November Breeding Stock Sale of 2022. BBN Racing picked him up for $125,000 in the Keeneland Association September Yearling Sale of 2023.
Oliver started a stable of horses in 1999 and has gradually moved up in the business. She has started 3,638 horses in her career, winning 382 races, running second 412 times and third another 461. Her horses have earned $25,284,434.
