Dean Delivers targets repeat in De Francis Memorial Dash
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Trainer Ned Allard is hoping for an encore performance from Dean Delivers in the $175,000 Frank J. De Francis Memorial Dash on Saturday at Laurel Park. Last year, the gelding kicked clear on the front end to earn a three-quarter-length victory.
Dean Delivers may not be as sharp as he was at this point last year, but it’s still hard to deny the six-time stakes winner’s chances of defending his crown. After tailing off at the end of his 2024 campaign, Allard gave him a winter break and brought him back in the $100,000 Mr. Prospector at Monmouth Park last month. He didn’t replicate his eight-length victory from the 2024 running, but he still ran solidly to finish third behind improving colt Buccherino.
“I was real pleased with his first race,” Allard said. “It was his first time out, and he obviously likes Laurel’s course. I hope he’s a defending champion.”
Subrogate, runner-up in the Mr. Prospector last time out, finished a half-length ahead of Dean Delivers and will face him again Saturday. Jorge Duarte kept the 5-year-old horse out of action for 10 months to treat a quarter crack, and his performance at Monmouth last month suggests that he’s still a stakes-caliber runner.
“The right thing to do was to let the foot grow out, so we just monitored it through the winter, and the best decision was to give him the rest of the winter off,” Duarte said. “He came back very good. We hadn’t had any hiccups and got him to the races again. He should get a lot out of that race.”
The two contenders coming out of the Mr. Prospector are among five in the field of eight making their second start off a layoff, which could shake things up as runners continue rounding into form.
Celtic Contender, a hard-knocking 4-year-old colt trained by Ham Smith, finished third in the Grade 3 Maryland Sprint at Pimlico in May after a two-month break. He earned three restricted stakes victories at Laurel last year and should stalk several pacesetters on Saturday.
Precocity can be a blessing or a curse in these salty fields, putting 3-year-old colt Faster Gator in a delicate position in his first start against older horses. In the $150,000 Bay Shore at Aqueduct, his third career start, he finished second by a head behind Mo Plex, next-out winner of the Grade 3 Ohio Derby.
Faster Gator’s effort in the $150,000 Chick Lang at Pimlico was not as inspiring, but he completed a five-furlong workout at Laurel in 58 seconds on June 21, convincing trainer Anthony Farrior that he’s ready for a new test. His stablemate, 4-year-old colt Petingas Twin, will scratch and race in an allowance on Sunday instead.
Happy Is a Choice is cross-entered in the Grade 3 Kelly’s Landing on Saturday at Churchill Downs and is expected to run there.
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