Dalasan tactics left to Bowman after barrier draw

Trainer Leon Macdonald says he'll leave tactics for Caulfield Guineas favourite Dalasan up to jockey Hugh Bowman after drawing barrier 18 for Saturday's three-year-old feature.

The South Australian galloper will attempt to achieve what only Press Statement (2015) has achieved in the last 10 editions of the race by jumping from gate 15 in the 16-horse field after emergencies are removed – winning from a double-figure barrier.

Seven of the last 10 Caulfield Guineas winners have started from inside barrier five, but the top three in the market – Dalasan (18), Alligator Blood (13) and Kubrick (17) – will have to overcome that recent history.

Macdonald said Dalasan would put himself into the race early from out wide under Bowman, who has replaced Raquel Clark following his second-placed finish in the Guineas Prelude.

"I think a barrier is a barrier, where you draw is where you draw and sometimes you can draw one, two or three and get knocked over," Macdonald said.

"He's got a good rider on him. I'd like it better but it's not; it's a fact of life.

"He'll definitely be in the first half of the race, I'd say. It's going to be up to Hughie where he goes but he'll work that out so let's see.

"He has got good natural early speed and his work this morning was tremendous so I think he'll get up in the first five or six.

"[Alligator Blood] has awkwardly drawn as well and he's a forward-going horse so we might be on his back when we've gone 200 metres."

Macdonald said the colt trained super with the addition of blinkers on Tuesday morning and should improve with the gear change.

"I'm very happy with them. I don't know whether he needed sharpening up but he tends to float a bit and loses just a bit of confidence sometimes.

"Shaded up, he'll be much better I'm sure."

A Cox Plate tilt hasn't been ruled out either if Dalasan is able to win impressively this Saturday.

"It depends what he does," Macdonald said.

"If he happened to win this and do well he could go to the Cox Plate. I would think [he'd enjoy 2000 metres] the way he's bred.

"If he doesn't [win] he'll probably go to the Carbine Club on Derby Day.

"He's always shown right from the start that he could gallop a bit, but by Dalakani out of a staying mare, you'd hope he'd be a Derby horse in the autumn."

Macdonald said it "would be sensational" to win the stallion-making race with Dalasan, the best horse he's had in his stable for years.

"I've had great success at Caulfield with a couple of Tooraks and a Caulfield Cup and a couple of other good races here, so Caulfield's been really good to me," he said.

"This would probably put the icing on the cake."

The barrier draw was much kinder to the Thousand Guineas favourite Flit, who drew barrier 2 in the field of 11, while just nine horses will line up in the Schillaci Stakes, with a ticket into next Saturday's $14 million Everest up for grabs.

Godolphin sprinter Trekking has drawn barrier 5, with Oakleigh Plate winner Booking (barrier 4) and stablemate Viridine (barrier 6) drawn either side of him.