Delaunay may switch to turf for Bonapaw

Delaunay, who brilliantly won the Thanksgiving Handicap in his most recent start, could switch from dirt to turf for his next start, trainer Tom Amoss said this week.

The 7-year-old Delaunay won the six-furlong Thanksgiving by seven lengths, producing a career-best 111 Beyer Speed Figure. Amoss said shortly after the race, Delaunay’s first start in almost three months, that Delaunay had come out of the start in good shape. Delaunay backed that up with a swift half-mile workout on Saturday. The work, which Amoss said looked good in addition to being quick, was the third-fastest of 104 four-furlong drills that morning.

But now Delaunay, who loves the Fair Grounds main track, is all dressed up with nowhere to run. Fair Grounds has considerably trimmed its once-strong program for older main-track sprinters: The next race – and last race this meet – in the division is the six-furlong $60,000 Duncan Kenner on Feb. 21.

There are not a lot of better near-term options outside Fair Grounds, either, and Amoss is not keen to send his aging sprinter on the road right now. All that leaves the $60,000 Bonapaw, a 5 1/2-furlong turf race on Jan. 3, as a potential landing spot.

“I’m not opposed to the idea of trying him sprinting on the grass,” Amoss said. “That’s certainly an option.”

Delaunay actually has a record of 1-2-1 from 5 grass starts, but he has not been on turf since Amoss and owner Maggi Moss claimed him for $40,000 in May 2012. His high-water mark on turf came during October 2011 at Laurel, where he won a third-level allowance sprint.

Were Delaunay to go in the Bonapaw, he would probably be matched up – as so often has been the case – with Gantry, who rebounded from a subpar Thanksgiving to win a high-level turf sprint allowance last week at Fair Grounds.