Darling View’s God predicted to play a starring role at Magic Millions Perth sale
Darling View Thoroughbreds stud manager Brent Atwell has described the Magic Millions Perth Yearling Sale as being akin to a “grand final” for breeders in Western Australia. If recent form is any guide, buyers look set to make the operation’s gun sire Playing God (Blackfriars) the MVP at the Swan Valley sales complex.
The reigning champion sire in Western Australia has 37 entries across the 350-lot catalogue, including ten in Darling View’s own consignment, which also features eight members of the stud’s first-crop sire Splintex (Snitzel).
“It’s massive,” Atwell said of the two-day sale, which begins on Thursday at 11am. “It’s probably my favourite week of the year. It’s our grand final, which I’m sure is the case for most vendors. For us in WA, we get one premier sale for the year. While you might not like throwing all your eggs into one basket, this is our number one sale, so there’s a lot of anticipation and excitement around.”
Plenty of that excitement is on account of Playing God. Despite standing for as little as $4,400 (inc GST) in his early seasons, which were spent at Mungrup Stud before a transfer to Darling View in 2020, he has come up with a whole host of high-class performers. These have come at an exceptional stakes horses-to-runners ratio of 15 per cent, and include two Group 1 winners to boot.
His debut crop contained just 29 starters, but five of those won stakes races to set in motion a meteoric rise up the ranks. That momentum was maintained when his second crop contained three more stakes winners, including Kingston Town Classic (Gr 1, 1900m) scorer Kay Cee.
She is now one of 33 black type performers on Playing God’s stud CV, along with fellow Group 1 winner Bustler, whose sister set a Perth Yearling Sale record when knocked down to Sheamus Mills at $625,000 12 months ago.
Reflecting on the journey Playing God has taken Darling View on, Atwell said: “It’s been humbling. We hoped he could reach a really good level when we purchased him back in 2020, but we never once thought he’d reach the heights that he has – and I don’t think he’s done yet, I think he’s still progressing. He’s had another great year, he’s an equal fifth in the sires’ list by stakes winners [with six] across the country, right behind the best of the best. His stats don’t lie and I think he’s going to have a very strong sale here in Perth, regardless of what the market might be doing.”
These exploits earned Playing God a fee increase to $49,500 (inc GST) in 2024. That figure is not only a record for the state but surpassed the previous high-mark set by his own sire, the 12-time WA champion Blackfriars.
This year’s yearlings were bred at a fee of $27,500 (inc GST), which was the first of three consecutive increases. Given this means Playing God has bigger and better-bred crops still in the pipeline, Atwell said it would come as no surprise if he eventually breaks his own Perth yearling sale record.
“That [breaking the record last year] was huge,” he said. “The market was hot at the time and she was a very nice horse. I’m not going to say something is going to jump out and do that this year, but it wouldn’t surprise me. I’ve heard a few comments today that there’s some nice Playing Gods around the grounds, and people are saying they wouldn’t be surprised if he happened to set a new record either. Looking into the near future, the opportunity is there because there’s some really nice mares, well performing and good producing mares, that have visited him, so I wouldn’t be surprised if he breaks another record in the next couple of years.”
Playing God’s eye-popping statistics not only tell the tale of a precious upgrader of stock, but highlight his versatility as well, in terms of both the types he throws and the sorts of mares he suits.
“His best attribute is the way he can upgrade a mare,” said Atwell. “We’ve had a bunch of mares come to the farm that have struggled to produce a winner, and then their first foal by Playing God has turned out to be a stakes winner. He’s able to upgrade these mares, regardless of their pedigree or their type.
“I’ve had a lot of people ask what the best Playing God is and, to be honest, he gets them in all shapes and sizes. Generally that’s not a wonderful thing for a stallion, but this bloke does, and at the end of the day he’s had stakes winners from 1000 metres to 2400 metres, Derby winners and sprinting stakes winners.”
Atwell continued: “He can get all different sorts and I don’t think it really matters what they look like. I think the quality in the types he’s getting is forever improving and I think he’s only going to continue on that upward trajectory over the coming years. They’re really like a fine wine: if you take your time and look after them, they just seem to get better and better with age.”
This will be Darling View’s first sale trading under the operation’s own banner, having spent the last ten years selling as the Western Breeders Alliance, a partnership that also involved Einoncliff Park and Westbury Park. This year each member of the triumvirate will go it alone, with Atwell explaining the decision was essentially a practical consideration.
“It was mainly a numbers thing,” he said. “The first year that we sold under Western Breeders we had 15 yearlings in total. This year, if we’d stayed together, there’d have been in the vicinity of 60 yearlings, so it was getting a little bit big. But we also had the opportunity of selling the first crop of Splintex under our own name, so we thought it was good timing with that.”
Splintex was a high-class sprinter who won races at two, three, four and five. His biggest successes came in the Arrowfield Sprint (Gr 2, 1200m) at three and the Lexus Bobbie Lewis Quality (Gr 2, 1200m) at five. The son of Snitzel (Redoute’s Choice), who shares his pedigree with the likes of Hips Don’t Lie (Stravinsky), Acrobat (Fastnet Rock) and Learning To Fly (Justify), has received a solid base of support since retiring to Darling View in 2022 at a fee of $11,000 (inc GST). Atwell hopes that support will be mirrored in the sales ring this week.
“We’re really excited about Splintex and his stock have been really well received in the first few days here,” he said. “He’s throwing real quality into his stock, they’ve got good strength behind them and really good temperaments, which probably comes through from the Snitzel-Redoute’s Choice (Danehill) line. They have substance and movement, and I expect they’ll be nice precocious sorts of horses. They look like quite mature horses and, as he himself was a very good sprinter, I’d say that’s what you’d expect from his stock.”
Although the foundation of Darling View’s consignment is made up of home sires, the offering contains the progeny of stallions standing further afield too. The draft features the only lots in the catalogue by Capitalist (Written Tycoon) and Lonhro (Octagonal), and also has youngsters by the likes of Farnan (Not A Single Doubt), So You Think (High Chaparral), Bivouac (Exceed And Excel) and St Mark’s Basilica (Siyouni).
“We like having an array of sires in our draft,” said Atwell. “Obviously we’re very lucky to be headlined by our Playing Gods, we have ten of those and a good bunch of Splintex represented as well. Across the board I’m extremely happy that this group is our first draft under our own name, I think it’s full of quality. Our aim is to be selling 28 yearlings and I think they’re all good enough to find a home. Some are right at the top end and some are mixed through across the board.”
Atwell said he expected the market to follow the trends witnessed elsewhere this sales season, with a lively top end but increasing selectivity in the tiers below.
“The top end, regardless of what sale you go to, is going to be strong; it’s always tough to buy good horses,” he said. “As vendors I think we have to realise where the market and the economy are, and be prepared to meet the market. But if you bring nice horses to the sale, then you can be confident in them. Like I said, we want 100 per cent of our stock to find a home so we’ll be doing our best to achieve that.”
Those sentiments were echoed by David Houston, manager of Magic Millions’ Perth operation. “I think a good horse is always very hard to buy, no matter what sale you go to,” he said. “Luckily here in WA we have the best horses the state produces, they haven’t been picked through and sent off to other sales; essentially the best we produce are here on the ground. You have to find people to take them away at the lower end, which is probably difficult at any sale, but the locals do support this sale very strongly and we have some interstate people to have a crack too.”
Houston also pointed to the impact Playing God was likely to have on proceedings. He said: “We’re hanging our hat on Playing God. We’ve got 37 by him in the sale, which should make it very competitive. He’s a great draw card because everyone wants one. We’ve been improving [the offering] over the last few years and I certainly think this year’s catalogue holds up. We have a great array of stallions, there’s 83 of them represented in the catalogue, including the best we have here and some of the best from across the whole country.”
As well as a breakout stallion, Houston said the various incentive schemes were another reason for buyers to consider shopping in WA. Of the 350 lots in the catalogue, 337 are nominated to the Westspeed or Westspeed Platinum schemes.
“Western Australia has been proving a very lucrative place to race horses with our bonus schemes,” he said. “I think we’ve got ourselves to a good level with the stock we’ve got here, they’re all very competitive, and the sale has been producing very well over a number of years. For a small population we do well. If we had more population I’d like to think things would be stronger, but we’ll push on and try hard. Everyone here’s been saying the horses all look in good order, they’ve come through all the prep and showing well, so we’re keen to get them into the sale ring, that’s for sure.”
Selling begins on Thursday at 11am, with Book 2 following on Friday at 10am.