‘Dean' tries to deliver special win for late owner-breeder Gil Campbell

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Dean Delivers, idle since a third-place finish in the Grade 1 Alfred G. Vanderbilt Handicap at Saratoga nearly three months earlier, will go postward the starting highweight and likely favorite against nine rivals in Saturday’s $100,000 Gil Campbell Memorial Handicap at Gulfstream Park.

As a Stonehedge homebred still owned by the late Campbell’s wife, Marilyn, Dean Delivers is the sentimental favorite in the one-mile race for Florida-breds. Easily second best behind Clapton in the inaugural running of this event a year ago, Dean Delivers will tote top weight of 126 pounds. He faces a field that includes Big and Classy, who is in search of his ninth win of the season, Arindel homebreds Octane and The Skipper Too, and the 8-year-old multiple stakes winner Noble Drama.

Dean Delivers has been idle since chasing home division leader and reigning sprint champion Elite Power along with Gunite in the six-furlong Vanderbilt. In his previous start, Dean Delivers earned a $30,000 credit toward expense fees for the Breeders’ Cup Sprint by virtue of his popular and relatively easy 2 1/4-length victory over Big and Classy in the Grade 3 Smile Sprint.

After weighing their options, the connections of Dean Delivers opted to forego the temptation of competing in the Breeders’ Cup. Instead, they brought the son of Cajun Breeze back to the farm in Ocala for a freshening after the Vanderbilt, then returned him to trainer Michael Yates at Gulfstream for a second chance at winning the Campbell.

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“I talked it over with Mrs. Campbell and the Stonehedge people and they just felt it was absolutely asking a lot of him to go to the Sprint, even with the bonus he earned towards the expenses,” Yates explained.

Although he has had the bulk of his success at six and seven furlongs this season, Dean Delivers has run well in three previous tries at a mile. Aside from his second-place finish in the 2022 Campbell, he also was third in the Grade 3 Fred Hooper and fourth in the Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Mile earlier this season.

Former claimer Big and Classy has been a win machine this season, capturing 8 of 10 starts. One of his two defeats this year came in his only start at a mile, an overnight handicap Aug. 26. Trained by Bobby Dibona, Big and Classy rebounded nicely from that setback when turning back to seven panels to win a similarly conditioned overnight event by 3 1/4 lengths four weeks later.

Octane has captured each of his last four starts against statebreds, including the final two legs of the Florida Sire Series, the Affirmed and In Reality, as a 2-year-old in 2021. He also finished a head better than Dean Delivers when second best behind Endorsed in the Hooper in his 2023 debut.

The Skipper Too has won 2 of 7 starts this year, including an overnight handicap against open company around two turns here this summer, while Noble Drama, a distant third in this race a year ago, remains winless in six tries this season.

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