Dean Delivers likes the cooler weather; easily takes Mr. Prospector

The 5-year-old gelding Dean Delivers has spent nearly his entire life in his home state of Florida. Getting out of the state, according to his new trainer, keyed an easy win Monday at Monmouth Park in the $100,000 Mr. Prospector Stakes.

Dean Delivers, a Grade 3 winning sprinter, had left home only once before this spring, shipping to Saratoga for a fine third last summer in the Grade 1 Alfred G. Vanderbilt. His form in two starts during 2024 looked nothing like that. And after a flat fourth-place finish in a Florida-bred race March 24, owners Gil and Marilyn Campbell, whose nom de course is Stonehedge, decided it was time for a change.

“This is a Florida-bred, so they felt they needed to keep him in Florida,” Delaware Park-based trainer Ned Allard told Monmouth publicity. “He tailed off there because of the heat. They decided to freshen him up a little bit. I got him about six or seven weeks ago and he has been training dynamite. But it took about a week for him to come alive again with energy, and he did with the cooler weather.”

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Dean Delivers was a cool eight-length winner of the Mr. Prospector, contested at six furlongs over a very sloppy, sealed track. The conditions suited the winner, who now is 4-3-1 on wet dirt surfaces. Dean Delivers broke sharply for jockey Miguel Vasquez and put himself right into the race, pressing Hurricane J through a quarter-mile in 21.74. Dean Delivers forged to the lead past the half-mile pole and the Mr. Prospector was all but over at the head of the homestretch. Dean Delivers coasted through the final furlong, stopping the timer in 1:10.43 and breaking a five-race losing streak.

Dean Delivers paid $11.80 to win and was followed home, distantly, by Hollywood Jet, second in the Mr. Prospector for the second year in a row. Little Vic finished third, while favored Counterspy, making his stakes debut, was squeezed back at the start, raced from last, and never came close to threatening, finishing fifth.

A homebred, Dean Delivers is by Cajun Breeze out of Slick and True, by Yes It’s True. It was about 70 degrees Monday at Monmouth along the Jersey Shore. At Gulfstream Park, where Dean Delivers has done most of his racing, it was 96. Dean Delivers was in the right state.

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