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Top 2YO, Holder and Dalasan share spotlight

Ecumenical is a very good two-year-old, Jason Holder is on fire, and Dalasan is a deserved SA Derby favourite – but Warning might be well named.

They were among the major take-home messages from Saturday’s black-type lined SA metropolitan meeting, shared between the Morphettville main track and the Parks course.

Ecumenical opened the meeting with an emphatic win in the talent-laden Group 3 Breeders Stakes (1200m), leaving few excuses for the beaten brigade. Trainer Mick Huxtable is now likely to target the 1400m Group 3 Sires Produce at Morphettville on May 9.

The pair of Group 3 races – both on the main track – bookended the program, with hot favourite Dalasan taking out the Chairman’s Stakes (2000m) to round out the day. Like a fortnight earlier in the Port Adelaide Guineas, Dalasan – trained by Leon Macdonald and Andrew Gluyas – was dominant, winning easily from runner-up Themoonlitegambler (which made an early move before hitting the home straight) and cementing his favouritism for the Group 1 SA Derby over 2500m on May 9.

However, VRC Derby winner Warning finished stoutly from the back of the field to claim third and signal that he will be a major challenger to Dalasan over the longer trip.

Jockey Jason Holder was aboard Dalasan and won three of the final five races, starting with Flemington trainer Levi Kavanagh’s promising – and well-backed – filly Wild Vixen in the Listed HC Nitschke Stakes over 1400m. Holder made it a race-to-race double in the next event with Phillip Stokes’ three-year-old filly Seemingly Discreet, which has now won her past four starts.

The other black-type event delivered an upset result, when Japanese import A Shin Rook – trained by Anthony Freedman at Flemington – burst through the pack to take out the 1400m Listed City of Adelaide, aided by a brilliant ride from Paul Gatt. Port Lincoln Cup winner Dexter You Devil ran a big race to finish second, among a quality field.

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