With Bracket Buster entered in the NYRA Bets Pegasus Stakes and millionaire Trademark set to make his seasonal debut in the Grade 3 Salvator Mile, trainer Vicki Oliver is hoping for a successful “homecoming” during Saturday’s Haskell Preview Day at Monmouth Park.

Oliver, who once worked in the track’s publicity office, saddled her first career winner at Monmouth Park with a horse named Love Line in 1998. The Jersey Shore track then served as her summer home base through 2010, before she moved to the Midwest circuit and Kentucky.

These days, she is looking to get Bracket Buster and Trademark jumpstarted for the second half of the racing season.

Five stakes headline the 12-race Haskell Preview Day card, with the Monmouth Stakes, Grade 3 Eatontown Stakes and the Lady’s Secret Stakes joining the Pegasus Stakes and the Salvator Mile on the day’s schedule.

There is a revised first race post time of 12:30 for the card.

Bracket Buster, second in the Grade 2 Lexington Stakes in his seasonal debut on April 12 at Keeneland, was a tiring seventh in his next start in the slop at Churchill Downs on May 3. But the Kentucky-bred son of Vekoma has kept some good company during his six-race career, finishing fifth in the Grade 3 Street Sense Stakes as a 2-year-old behind Sovereignty, Tiztastic and Sandman.

“He’s training well,” Oliver said. “I think he may have bounced after that big race in the Lexington Stakes and he didn’t like the slop. Plus, he didn’t have to greatest trip. So I decided to give him some time off and he is training really well.

“He’s still a maturing colt. I still think he is a little immature but I think he is ready for this next level.”

The Pegasus Stakes, at a mile and a sixteenth, attracted a field of eight 3-year-olds – though Long Branch Stakes winner Kentucky Outlaw is cross entered for Saturday’s Delaware Derby.

The top two finishers in the Pegasus Stakes receive free entry and start fees to the Grade 1 NYRA Bets Haskell Stakes on July 19. But Bracket Buster has to show more, Oliver said, to even consider putting that on his radar.

“He’s a young horse, real immature,” said Oliver. “He just hasn’t figured it out. It might be in a month that he does, or in three months, or next year, but right now he is still a baby. I don’t think he knows his potential yet.”

Trademark does know his potential after 28 career starts and $1,139,330 in career earnings, with the 6-year-old gelding holding the distinction of being Oliver’s all-time money earner. He just has to recapture it after going 0-for-6 last year, with four of those starts in graded stakes company.

After winning the Grade 2 Clark Stakes to close out his 2023 campaign, the Kentucky-bred son of Upstart failed to even hit the board last year.

He has been idle since Oct. 26, but he does have familiarity with Monmouth Park, finishing second in the Grade 3 Iselin Stakes and third in the Salvator Mile in 2023.

“He just didn’t come back to form after the Clark,” said Oliver. “He is one of those horses that has never gotten a break. So I wondered if he was mentally tired at the end of last year. He never showed it in the morning but he wasn’t racing well in the afternoon.

“So I just decided to give him the whole winter off, shut him down and re-group. I’ve trained him pretty hard for this. He is as fit as I can get him for this race.”

Oliver’s main concern is the one-mile distance, saying “a mile and an eighth is his ideal distance.”

“But this presented itself as a two-turn race,” she said. “A mile might be a little short for him but he might be sharper than normal since he is coming off a long layoff.”

Oliver said she is keeping her expectations realistic for Saturday. Both horses, she said, will arrive at Monmouth Park on Thursday morning.

“I really want to see Trademark come back to his form even if he doesn’t win,” she said. “He’s such a nice horse. And I want to see Bracket Buster start to move forward, starting with this race.”

The winning connections of the Salvator Mile receive free entry and start fees to the Grade 3 Monmouth Cup on the Haskell Stakes undercard.

Saturday will also be a giveaway day, with Monmouth Park hoodies given to the first 6,000 paid admissions.