BY BROCK SHERIDAN

Stonehedge LLC Dean Delivers, who has been second five times against stakes company, took home his first top black-type prize Saturday at Gulfstream Park with a convincing victory in the seven-furlong Big Drama against older Florida-breds. Trained by Michael Yates, Dean Delivers also earned a $25,000 FTBOA Florida Sire Stakes Win bonus in addition to the winner’s share of the $65,000 purse.

Dean Delivers and jockey Emisael Jaramillo broke well from post three as Avant Glory darted to the early lead from post five with Picking Up Pennies to his inside. Dean Delivers set up just behind the top two in third and Stormy Pattern joined him to the inside as Avant Glory and Picking Up Pennies finished the first two furlongs in :22.94.

Avant Glory sprinted clear with a half-mile to the finish when Dean Delivers moved closer as they began their way around the far turn. Passing the three-eighths marker, Dean Delivers took a subtle cue from Jaramillo and shot to the front with a three-wide move as Picking Up Pennies followed to take second from between horses as they went by the five-sixteenths pole after a half-mile in :45.62. But Dean Delivers sprinted away from his rivals turning for home and was well clear of Picking Up Pennies, Avant Glory and Starship Renegade in a joint second at the top of the stretch.

Dean Delivers finished up in 1:23.11 on the fast track and was three-and-three-quarter lengths in front of Starship Renegade in second with Avant Glory another length-and-a-quarter farther back in third. Picking Up Pennies was fourth followed, in order, by Gangly and Stormy Pattern. Big and Classy was scratched.

Dean Delivers paid $3.80 to win as the odds-on choice and won for the first time since taking a first condition, $75,000 optional claiming on Aug. 14 and a first condition, $20,000 optional claiming the race before on July 15, both at Gulfstream.

Since those wins, Dean Delivers had four seconds—three in stakes—and a third and fourth against graded-stakes foes, all at Gulfstream. He was a runner-up to Clapton in $150,000 FTBOA Gil Campbell Memorial Handicap on Oct. 1 and was second to Sibelius in the Grade 3 Mr. Prospector on Dec. 31. Just prior to the Big Drama, he was a neck short of Weyburn in the $105,000 Sir Shackleton on April 1. In that span he was also third in the Grade 3 Fred Hooper on Jan. 28 and fourth in the Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Mile on March 4, both won by Endorsed.

The other two runner-up performances in his career came in the $100,000 FTBOA Florida Sire Stakes Dr. Fager to stablemate Cajun’s Magic in 2021 and in the Grade 3 Claiborne Farm Swale won by My Prankster in February of last year.

The $63,610 payday in the Big Drama increased his career revenues to $347,860 from four wins, seven seconds and a third in 15 starts.

Dean Delivers is by Stonehedge Farm South stallion Cajun Breeze and his bottom side goes back three generations of broodmares owned by the late Gilbert Campbell and his wife Marilyn Campbell. His first dam is Florida-bred Slick and True, by Yes It’s True out of the Campbell’s stakes-winning Florida-homebred mare Slick Lady—by Florida-bred Unreal Zeal—and winner of the 2001 Columbus Day at Suffolk Downs. His third dam is the Deputy Minister mare Beaty Sark, who Gilbert Campbell purchased for $40,000 out of the 1987 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky Summer Yearling Sale.

Slick and True has also produced stakes-placed Zimba Warrior, by Journeyman Stud’s leading sire Khozan; an unraced 2-year-old colt, Hayahlookatme, by Khozan; and an unnamed yearling filly by Gentlemen’s Bet. She was bred to Lone Sailor in 2023.