Dalghar’s destiny – The unintended long game behind the rise of Perth’s brightest new talent

Perth racing has a new hero. An overnight success story that is closing in on being two decades in the making.

On the surface, King Of Light will be out to cap a meteoric rise as a warm favourite to win the $1.5 million Northerly Stakes.

The reality for prominent breeder and King Of Light’s part-owner, Neven Botica, tells a contrasting tale to the whirlwind journey that has encapsulated the three-year-old’s rapid ascent as the spruik horse of the West Australian thoroughbred world.

An end-of-season debutant as a two-year-old, King Of Light opened his account with two wins before marching to three more victories to become one of the most talked about horses over the past month of racing in Perth.

That he is on the brink of extending that unconquered sequence to six against Perth’s best weight-for-age middle-distance horses and a smattering of eastern seaboard representation leaves Botica a bit nonplussed.

“I feel very grateful that I’m in the position I’m in with this horse because how many horses can win five in a row? Or their first five starts in particular,” Botica told The Straight. 

Botica has been around horses most of his adult life. He cut his teeth in harness racing and travelled the world with Sundons Gift.

A square-gaiter with an extraordinary record, Sundons Gift has the distinction of being the only standardbred to graze in retirement alongside some of Australia’s bona fide turf stars at Living Legends on the outskirts of Melbourne.

There were others before the lure of the thoroughbreds turned a casual interest into a thirst for pedigrees and new friendships with some of racing’s iconic figures.

He met Bart Cummings while having dinner in a Hayman Island restaurant and it wasn’t long before he was following the Cups King around the yearling sales.

Sir Patrick Hogan became an influential figure in his life and nothing was out of the question for Botica who had sold his business and wanted to invest heavily in bloodstock.

Darley’s shuttle stallion Earthlight is the sire of King Of Light but it is the chestnut’s distaff line that epitomises what Botica says have been the ups and downs as a commercial breeder.

In 2009, he ventured into the American market to buy the Rock Of Gibraltar mare Press Leak at Keeneland with an eye to supporting his foray into the stallion game and the acquisition of Dalghar a few years later.

Dalghar arrived in the southern hemisphere with a mouth-watering European pedigree as a half-brother to European Horse of the Year Daylami (Doyoun) and Arc de Triomphe winner Dalakhani (Darshaan).

Despite his bloodlines, Dalghar wasn’t the commercial success Botica might have hoped for, but out of that disappointment, the wisdom of Cummings and Hogan has more meaning than ever on the eve of the Northerly.

King Of Light’s dam Queen’s Parade is a daughter of Dalghar from Press Leak, ensuring Botica is viewing the WA Guineas winner’s emergence from a lens covered in irony and overdue satisfaction.

“Sir Patrick and Bart always told me it takes 20 years to build a family,” Botica said.

“We’re not quite at 20 years yet, but we’re not far off.

“Dalghar’s been an interesting one. Obviously, he’s got a pretty amazing pedigree on his female side and originally, I wanted to bring him to WA but I couldn’t get any support here.

“(Bloodstock agent) John Chalmers helped me place him in New Zealand.”

Botica sold Queen’s Parade to trainer Darren McAuliffe’s Impressive Racing but kept a piece before buying her back as an established broodmare and securing King Of Light as a weanling that made $120,000 as a Magic Millions Perth Yearling Sale graduate.

Leading Perth trainer Dan Morton was the successful bidder, and once again, Botica is among a group of owners who have enjoyed an extraordinary ride.

None more so than Botica himself with Queen’s Parade foaling a Blue Point filly in 2024, a Pierata filly this season, ahead of a covering to Cylinder, Darley’s Newmarket Handicap-winning son of retired stallion Exceed And Excel.

“King Of Light didn’t start racing in July. He’s definitely shot the lights out for himself but he has also done a lot for the family, considering everything,” Botica said.

Botica also bred this year’s Perth Cup winner Hemlock Stone, another son of Dalghar whom he sold as a yearling.

Hemlock Stone will be one of King Of Light’s rivals in the Northerly but is rated an outside chance only against an up-and-comer that Botica, with reservations, says can have a career with endless opportunities.

“Really, we’ve only entered the first chapter with this horse,” he said.

“You don’t know, anything could happen really, you can’t know … we don’t know.”

Finding out promises to be the fun bit for Botica, who has had several Group 1 near-misses and raced the Cummings-trained Moatize, who finished sixth to stablemate Viewed in the Melbourne Cup in what was the legendary trainer’s 13th and last win in Australia’s greatest race.

“I can only pray that it’s going to be a really enjoyable journey for everyone involved, but I’ve been around long enough not to think too far ahead.”

King Of Light will have WA’s champion jockey William Pike in his corner, providing a lead and insight that makes a compelling case for his chances.

Pike has chosen King Of Light over the Railway Stakes winner Watch Me Rock in a bid to enhance a Northerly resume that includes wins on three-year-old fillies Arcadia Queen (2018) and Perfection Reflection (2015).

“I’ve had some amazing people make some comparisons with King Of Light to other horses in the past and the fact that people are talking about him so much, he must be good,” Botica said.

“You can only hope and you can only wish that you can go so far … but it gives me goosebumps just thinking about it.

“Horses like King Of Light are good for racing and I’m just grateful to be associated with him.”