Commencing his career at the old Moorefield Racecourse, where he trained both thoroughbreds and ponies, Frank Dalton rose to be one of Australia’s most eminent trainers in the 1940s and 1950s.

Silver Standard was the horse which gave Dalton his first taste of publicity when he became known as the horse that ran second in everything – being runner-up in the 1936 Doomben Cup, the 1936 and 1937 Metropolitans, and the 1936 Caulfield Cup and Melbourne Cup.Dalton established his reputation in the early 1940s with a succession of fine horses and feature race wins. In 1941 he won the Moonee Valley Cup with Yours Truly and in 1942 the Epsom Handicap with Freckles, ridden by his apprentice Jack Thompson.

With Oversight he won the 1951 Doncaster Handicap; with Barfleur he won the 1953 Hobartville Stakes and the 1953 Caulfield Guineas; and with Aboukir the 1955 Canterbury Guineas and Queensland Guineas.Dalton particularly liked training stayers and he had two stand-outs in his stable in Monte Carlo and Valerius, who brought him many wins in important distance races. Among the host of feature races he won were the AJC and VRC Derbies, the AJC St Leger, the Doncaster, Epsom and Metropolitan Handicaps, Moonee Valley Cup, Brisbane Cup, and the Caulfield, Canterbury and Queensland Guineas. Dalton retired from training in the mid-1960s.

Image Source: The Dalton Family