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Adelaide-trained three-year-old Dalasan stepped up as a genuine spring star at Flemington on Saturday, adding to the great success her trainer Leon Macdonald and owner Harry Perks have enjoyed over three decades.
The association between SA Hall of Fame trainer Macdonald and Perk's Toorak Thoroughbreds has been one of most fruitful owner/trainer partnerships in Australian racing featuring such notable G1 winners as Gold Guru, dual Derby winner and sire Rebel Raider, G1 Caulfield Cup winner Southern Speed, G1 Thousand Guineas winner Serious Speed and G1 Champagne Stakes winner Go Indy Go.
Dalasan is well on his way to joining them as a G1 winner after he won Saturday's G2 Danehill Stakes, taking his record to four wins from only five starts for $317,095 prize-money.
Toorak Thoroughbreds bred Dalasan, by Dalakhani from the US-bred Kitten's Joy mare Khandallah, and offered him through the Mill Park Stud draft at the 2018 Melbourne Premier Yearling Sale where Macdonald and his training partner Andrew Gluyas bought him for $80,000 with Perks retaining a share.
"Harry and his family kept some of the colt and we syndicated the rest," said Macdonald, went back to the Melbourne sale this year and went to $110,000 to secure Khandallah's fourth foal by Dissident.
Khandallah, a two-time winner at 1600m and twice stakes placed in Tasmania, had been purchased by Perks for $35,000 at the 2013 Australian Easter Broodmare Sale. She has a filly foal by So You Think and is booked to American Pharoah this spring.
Dalasan is the 53rd stakes winner by the 2003 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe winner Dalakhani, who shuttled to South Australia's Cornerstone Stud for three seasons and was retired from stud duties in 2016.
His notable Australian winners include the imported G1 Queen Elizabeth Stakes winner Reliable Man, standing at stud in New Zealand, and G3 winner Guardini.
Dalakhani has sired more than 700 winners including 10 G1 winners.
