Fair Grounds: Delaunay out of Thanksgiving Day Handicap with a fever

NEW ORLEANS – Delaunay won’t have a chance to defend his title in the Thanksgiving Handicap at Fair Grounds after contracting what trainer Tom Amoss hopes is a minor illness.

Amoss said Delaunay didn’t finish his feed Friday night, something the horse had never done before, and was running a temperature Saturday morning when entries for the Thanksgiving Handicap were being taken.

“He had a 103-degree fever today, and we’ve already started treating him,” Amoss said. “He was perfect yesterday. I’m sure there will be the cynical people that think it’s something more than this, but it’s not.”

Delaunay had the best Fair Grounds meet of any horse stabled here last season, and went on to win the Churchill Downs Handicap in May. His form slipped in the summer, and Delaunay finished second in the Prairie Meadows Sprint and fourth in the Vanderbilt Handicap on Aug. 4 at Saratoga, after which he was given time off before returning to Amoss’s string this fall.

Amoss hopes to quickly get Delaunay back on track and make the next dirt-sprint stakes at this meet, the Jan. 25 Gaudin.

“Hopefully he’ll just miss a week or so, and we’ll move forward,” said Amoss.

Delaunay’s absence leaves Gantry, the winner of the 2011 Thanksgiving Handicap, as the likely favorite for Thursday’s race.