Five-year-old Dean Delivers was several starts – and months – removed from his better form when owners Stonehedge LLC decided a change of scenery was in order.

The Florida-bred Cajun Breeze gelding had been based in the Sunshine State throughout his racing career while building his bankroll to more than a half-million dollars. In fact, he’d made just a single start outside of Florida, that coming when third behind Elite Power and Gunite in the Grade 1 Vanderbilt at Saratoga last July.

But then things went sideways: a pair of losses as the favorite, followed by a distant fifth at 5-2 in a stake at Gulfstream, an even worse fourth at 6-5 in a state-bred stake at Tampa Bay Downs. Four straight defeats, each one seeming worse than the race before. Something had to change.

So they sent him north to trainer Ned Allard’s Delaware Park-based operation.

“He came up from Florida and it looked like he needed a little change of season, so to speak, because it gets really hot down there during the summer,” Allard said. “His form did tail off a little bit, but as soon as he got up to the mid-Atlantic region, he kind of woke up again.”

Dean Delivers will try to build on a strong outing last time in Saturday’s $125,000, six-furlong Alapocas Run Stakes at his new home, Delaware Park. He is 4-1 on the morning line in a nine-horse field. The favorite, at 5-2, is the ultra-speedy Super Chow, a Jorge Delgado trainee who has won two Grade 3 races in his last three starts and is 7-for-12 at this six-furlong trip.

Dean Delivers began his comeback with a couple of breezes at Delaware, May 8 and May 20. Allard entered the veteran in the $100,000 Mr. Prospector Stakes at Monmouth Park and was handsomely rewarded. Dean Delivers dueled early through wicked fractions before drawing away to win by eight lengths while earning a 97 Beyer speed figure. It was Dean Delivers’ sixth career win from 22 starts.

“His race in the Mr. Prospector was a big effort,” Allard said. “I thought he was going to run well in there, but he even ran better than I thought.”

He caught a bit of a break that day when 3-2 favorite Counterspy whiffed the break, but still, drawing off after throwing down fractions of 21.67 seconds for the opening quarter and 44.74 for the half is nothing to sneeze at.

Since the Mr. Prospector, Dean Delivers has posted three workouts at Delaware. Most recently he went five furlongs in 1:03 2/5 June 29. That was the eighth-fastest of 21 at the distance.

“We have been pointing him for this race and he breezed nicely for it,” Allard said.

Dean Delivers earned his top win last July in the Grade 3 Smile Sprint at Gulfstream Park, one of the three stakes wins on his resume. Top local pilot Jaime Rodriguez will ride.

It’s a salty field he will face, however. The roster also includes graded stakes-placed runners Prince of Jericho (6-1), Ninetyprcentmaddie (8-1), and Seven’s Eleven (8-1). Also scheduled to race is Sir Wellington (8-1), who was second in this event a year ago and has never been worse than third in five Delaware starts.

The Alapocas Run is the seventh on a 10-race card and one of four stakes. The program is headed by the Gade 3 Delaware Oaks. Post time for the card is 12:30 p.m.

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