BY BROCK SHERIDAN
Graded stakes-winner Dean Delivers appears to be the one to beat in the $110,000 NYRABets Sprint, one of six stakes for registered Florida-breds on Tampa Bay Downs annual Florida Cup card Sunday.
The Sprint has attracted a field of seven 4-year-olds and older bred in the Sunshine State who will go six furlongs. The purse includes a $10,000 win bonus for those runners eligible for the lucrative Florida Thoroughbred Breeders’ and Owners’ Association Florida Sire Stakes program.
Owned and bred by Marilyn Campbell’s Stonehedge LLC, Dean Delivers took two sprint stakes in consecutive starts at Gulfstream Park last year beginning with a nearly four-length victory in the $90,000 Big Drama for Florida-breds going seven furlongs in May. He then stepped up to win the Grade 3 Smile Sprint by two-and-a-quarter lengths at six furlongs on July 1 before traveling to Saratoga where he finished third behind Elite Power in the Grade 1 A.G. Vanderbilt over a sloppy six furlongs in July.
Fifth after an unlucky trip in the $129,000 Gulfstream Park Sprint won by Run Classic last out on Feb. 24, Dean Delivers returns to Tampa Bay where two starts back he was second to Shaq Diesel in the FTBOA Florida Sire Stakes Marion County going seven furlongs on Dec. 9.
Dean Delivers is by Stonehedge Farm South stallion Cajun Breeze out of Slick and True, by Yes It’s True and is trained by Michael Yates. He has won five with eight seconds and two thirds in 20 career starts with earnings of $497,660.
He is the 2-1 morning line favorite and Javier Castellano will ride the 5-year-old gelding for the first time. They will break from post two.
C2 Racing Stables LLC’s Mish will have the advantage of a recent victory over the Tampa Bay surface when he goes postward in the Sprint for trainer Saffie Joseph Jr.
The 7-year-old gelding won a second-level, $32,000 optional claiming sprinting six furlongs there on Dec. 22 and just missed in his last race when second to Sibelius in the $75,000 Pelican at six furlongs on Feb. 10.
Mish is by Field Commission out of Wicked Great, by Greatness and was bred by Joyce Mary Kielty. He has eight wins in 27 career starts with six seconds and three thirds with earnings of $413,682.