Monit Start Delay not working

[xaxero]

I am having an issue with monit failing to access the Postfix server.

I have tried a start delay from 120 to 1000 and it appears that Monit always tries to access the mail server before the system is fully booted and Postfix is not running.

As soon as I get access to the Gui I see Monit has already tried and failed to send a message:

2023-11-01T14:09:40   Error   monit   Cannot connect to [localhost]:25 -- Connection timed out   
2023-11-01T14:00:02   Error   monit   Cannot open a connection to the mailserver localhost:25 -- Permission denied

When I can access the server is accessible:
root@OADStarlink:~ # telnet localhost 25
Trying 127.0.0.1...
Connected to localhost.
Escape character is '^]'.
220 oadstarlink ESMTP Postfix
HELO localhost
250 oadstarlink



Monit config follows:

root@OADStarlink:~ # cat /usr/local/etc/monitrc
# DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE -- OPNsense auto-generated file

set httpd unixsocket /var/run/monit.sock
    allow localhost

set daemon 120 with start delay 120

set logfile syslog facility log_daemon



set mailserver localhost,10.10.11.1 port 25   

set alert jon@xaxero.com  { instance,resource }  reminder on 10 cycles

check system $HOST
   if memory usage is greater than 75% then alert
   if cpu usage is greater than 75% then alert
   if loadavg (1min) is greater than 16 then alert
   if loadavg (5min) is greater than 12 then alert

check filesystem RootFs with path "/"
   if space usage is greater than 75% then alert




include /usr/local/etc/monit.opnsense.d/*.conf

[xaxero]

Looking deeper it appears that Monit is detecting a shutdown. The event started just before reboot so the delay is probably working not sure why the behavior is different to all my other firewalls.