Monmouth Park: Kreiser's 1st graded winner tries again Saturday

It took trainer Tim Kreiser 9,901 starters before he captured his first graded-stakes victory. Now he’s looking for a second one in the span of just two months.

Point Dume, a 5-year-old gelding claimed for $40,000 last July 5, carries Kreiser’s latest graded-stakes hopes in Saturday’s Grade 3, $150,000 Salvator Mile, one of four stakes races on Monmouth Park’s Haskell Preview Day card.

Click here for Monmouth Park entries and results.

The 10-race Haskell preview day card also includes the Pegasus Stakes, the final local prep for the Grade 1 Haskell Stakes on July 18; the Monmouth Stakes at 1 1/8 miles on the grass; and the Eatontown (G3) at 1 1/16 miles on the turf for fillies and mares, 3 and up.

Of the nine runners entered in the Salvator Mile, five are graded-stakes winners. One of them is Point Dume, who won the Carter Stakes (G2) on April 4 at Aqueduct, holding on by a neck to beat champion male sprinter Book’em Danno.

“Obviously, it was a heck of a day,” said the 62-year-old Kreiser, who is based at Penn National. “The horse we beat, we all know who he is. That made it a little extra special.

“It’s something you always hope someday will happen for you if you get a horse that is good enough. I don’t get those kind of horses much. It was one of those claims that worked out.”

The Salvator Mile field features Grade 3 winner Grande, trained by Todd Pletcher; Grade 2 winner Giocoso, trained by Keith Desormeaux; multiple graded-stakes winner Bishops Bay, trained by Brad Cox, and Grade 1 winner East Avenue, trained by Brendan Walsh.

Then there’s Kreiser and Point Dume.

“I like the race for (Point Dume),” said Kreiser, who has nine Penn National training titles and 2,374 career wins. “If we get a good break, we have a good post (3) for a flat mile. He has plenty of speed. I kind of like this spot for him.”

Point Dume is already the second-highest earning horse Kreiser has ever had, banking $485,110 since being claimed. Only Power of Snunner ($552,185) has earned more for the conditioner, who started his career in 1993.

Point Dume has won five of 10 starts for Kreiser and has a career record of 32: 11-7-3, with overall earnings of $726,300.

Before the Carter, it was Power of Snunner, Kreiser said, who had the best shot at being a graded-stakes winner for him, with the mare finishing fourth in the Molly Pitcher (G3) at Monmouth Park in 2017. She also had a pair of seconds in two other graded stakes.

“If she goes wide that day at Monmouth, she beats them all. I thought that was my best shot at a graded stakes,” said Kreiser.

Owned by Bush Racing Stable (David Bushy), Point Dume has given Kreiser another memory he cherishes. The Kentucky-bred son of Into Mischief raced in the Churchill Downs Stakes (G1) on the Kentucky Derby undercard but never fired, finishing 10th. That marked Kreiser’s first time at the Kentucky Derby.

“That was an experience I wanted to have, and I got it,” he said. “It was a great day except for my race.”

Kreiser said an infection that had spread in the barn where Point Dume was housed in might have affected his horse that day.

“He just wasn’t himself,” he said. “He was flushed and didn’t have a temperature and he ate, but you could tell he wasn’t himself that day. He was a little edgy in the gate and when they opened the gate he was caught flat-footed and that was it. It was a headache.”

The top two finishers in the Salvator Mile receive free entry and start fees to the Monmouth Cup (G3) on the July 18 Haskell Stakes undercard.

The field for the 1 1/16-mile Pegasus Stakes consists of National Charter, Tricky Business, Star Sweeper, Schoolyardsuperman, Ponder and Dream and Baby Vino.

All six runners are seeking their first career stakes win, with the top two finishers receiving free entry and start fees to the $1 million Haskell Stakes.

The Eatontown Stakes attracted a field of eight, including Whiskey Decision, who won last year’s edition for trainer Chad Brown. Gimme A Nother; Creative Stuff; Strutsherstuff; Don’t Jinx It; Pink Ruby; Grayosh and Rhee Wall round out the field.

The top two finishers in the Eatontown Stakes receive free entry and start fees to the Matchmaker (G3) on the Haskell undercard.

The Monmouth Stakes drew a field of eight: Sand Pipes; Ridari; Eldest Son; Program Trading; Multitask; Belouni; Naptown and Nebras.

The top two finishers in the Monmouth Stakes receive free entry and start fees to the Grade 2 United Nations (G2) on the Haskell undercard.

First race post time is 12:50 p.m. EDT.