Grand campaigner Dalasan is bound for Melbourne after breaking a run of outs on Saturday when he saluted in the race named after his co-trainer, the Listed Leon Macdonald Stakes.
It was Dalasan’s first win since the 2020 G3 Chairman’s Stakes (2035m) at Morphettville, however, he has been placed four times at Group 1 level in Adelaide and Sydney since that victory.
“It was a big thrill,” Macdonald replied when asked about winning the race named in his honour.
“It was a bit strange really, but anyway, it was great.”
The renowned South Australian horseman was quick to play down his own role in getting Dalasan back to the winner’s circle after so many gallant but winless performances over the last two years.
“I don’t think we’ve done anything special,” Macdonald said, who trains Dalasan in partnership with Andrew Gluyas.
“He’s always been around the place; he hadn’t won for 800 days or something, but he’d won a lot of stake money in that time. The last run he had in the R.A. Lee Stakes at Morphettville, he did get galloped on badly, which didn’t help him, but he got over that.
“He’s been a great horse, really.”
Dalasan had to work hard for his eighth career victory.
On the track, the six-year-old was forced to sit three wide throughout the race after drawing the outside barrier, with Jason Holder in the saddle.
“That was always probably going to happen on that tight turning track, but anyway, he got away with it and he was strong on the line,” Macdonald said.
Off the track, Dalasan and his connections then had to survive a protest from Melissa Julius, who rode the runner up, Victorian visitor Just Folk.
That protest was ultimately dismissed, as Macdonald expected.
“There wasn’t much in it,” he said.
“As soon as I saw the film, I didn’t think there was much in it at all and he did also get interference from the second horse at about the 150-metre mark, it took his running, so there was probably going to be a counter protest if it was upheld, but when I saw it, I didn’t think that they would.”
Macdonald hasn’t picked out a specific race in Melbourne for Dalasan’s next start, where he’s previously won races like the Danehill Stakes (1200m) and Carbine Club Stakes (1600m), while he contested last year’s Cox Plate (2040m) and Mackinnon Stakes (2000m) at his last visit across the Victorian border.
Copy: Racing.com
