Mungrup’s heavenly Playing God filly breaks new barriers
Mills takes shine to $625,000 sister to Bustler at Magic Millions Perth Yearling Sale
Agent Sheamus Mills said the $625,000 Playing God (Blackfriars) filly – the star attraction of yesterday’s Magic Millions Perth Yearling Sale – could not be faulted as the potency of her sire resonated with buyers from across Australia.
The tone for the record-breaking session, which smashed through last year’s benchmark $13 million Book 1 bonanza, was set early when the day’s three highest-priced yearlings all sold within the first 90 minutes of the auction.
Spurred by demand for the progeny of Playing God, Western Australia’s premier stallion, interstate and international buyers locked horns with the locals to secure his best-bred crop of yearlings to go to market so far.
Other highlights yesterday included a Brazen Beau (I Am Invincible) colt, who made $375,000, while a well-related Playing God colt sold for $350,000 and a filly by the Darling View Thoroughbreds-based stallion made $250,000, the top-end action helping push the aggregate to almost $14.2 million.
It was evident that Mills would be interested in the filly when, two lots earlier, his headphones were inserted into his ear and a call was made to his racing partners, principally Heath Newton.
Mills argued that Playing God’s sire statistic of an elite 9.6 per cent stakes winners to runners was too hard to ignore, such was his desire to secure the prized filly he was pushed to the record price by the star stallion’s trainer Neville Parnham, the man who has also prepared the sire’s two Group 1 winners Bustler and Kay Cee.
“We brought Roots over for the Railway [last year] and she got beaten by Bustler, so I got an up-close-and-personal look at his ability and he beat a couple of nice horses that day,” Mills said.
“The mare can’t do much more than what she has already. The first foal’s a Group 1 winner, the second is a Group 2-placed and obviously Neville Parnham thought enough of the third one and this is the fourth.
“You talk about a formula, she did everything that you’d want to give one a try over in Melbourne or Sydney.”
Importantly, the filly’s physique also stacked up, leading to strong competition in the ring, with Mills believing that conformationally she was the best he’d seen so far this year, which includes the $1.6 million sister to Prowess (Proisir) and the $900,000 sister to Japanese Emperor (Satono Aladdin), who both sold at the New Zealand Bloodstock Karaka sale last month.
No trainer has been selected for the sale-topping filly.
“She was always going to top the sale because – and whether she’s going to have ability or not remains to be seen – I haven’t seen a better physical specimen this year,” Mills said.
“We had a pretty good go on a couple in New Zealand and obviously there was the Gold Coast and Easter’s yet to come, but physically she is just as good as you get.
“And she probably needed to be that to really pin the ears back and buy her, but I would be surprised if I saw a better sort than her in the Easter sale.
“The pedigree’s fine, but I am not here to buy broodmares, she physically looked like everything you want in a racehorse.”
The sister to this season’s Railway Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m) winner Bustler and half-sister to the stakes-performed A Lot Of Good Men (A Lot), the filly is the fourth foal out of mare Cosmah Domination (Oratorio), a mare Gray Williamson bought back for $7,500 out of the Mungrup Stud dispersal sale in 2020.
The consistent A Lot Of Good Men added to his black-type record by running third in Wednesday’s Challenge Stakes (Listed, 1500m) at Ascot, the three-year-old’s third stakes placing this season, while Bustler is in Melbourne preparing for his autumn preparation.
Mungrup Pty Ltd’s Williamson was ecstatic to be able to hold the Perth sale record – and by some margin – with his homebred filly, by a stallion he backed from the start.
“She is the best filly we’ve ever put through a sale, but we’ve had a lot of people say she’s the best horse presented here for many a year,” Williamson said.
“There’s so many things that can go wrong along the way, but she’s been straight-forward right from the start. It’s been easy for her. She did all the parades like a trooper and she sold herself, she’s that good.
“It is a fantastic result and we are absolutely over the moon.”
Before yesterday, the previous Perth sale record was $365,000 brought by an Elusive Quality (Gone West) filly who was sold in 2007.
Mills’ backer Newton is the main owner of the filly, but the Victorian agent revealed the group had expanded the number of investors buying into the racing and breeding partnership.
“I am lucky now that I am getting a good bit of interest from other people who see that the model’s working,” Mills said.
“So, there’s some like-minded people now wanting to go on that racing-breeding path with us. She’ll race in Heath’s colours but there’ll probably be some other people involved.”
Newton and Mills have enjoyed stakes success with the likes of Group 1-winning filly Odeum (Written Tycoon), Charm Stone (I Am Invincible) and Daisies (Sebring) and this year have added fillies by Savabeel (Zabeel), Smart Missile (Fastnet Rock) and Wootton Bassett (Iffraaj) from earlier sales.
“I say this with all due respect, I don’t want to go to the sale and buy the most expensive horse. I want to go to the sale and buy the horse that I really, really rate as a racehorse,” he said.
“The success we’ve had has been at all price levels from $150,000 to $1.5 million, so it’s certainly not the aim to go in there and buy the really obvious horse. It’s just this year that the ones I have believed in have not been the most obvious in the pack.”
A little later in the day, Mills also bought a daughter of Hellbent (I Am Invincible) for $160,000 in partnership with Melbourne trainers Anthony and Sam Freedman.
Parnham set to keep Playing God colt in the family
Neville Parnham, meanwhile, is likely to have his homebred brother to the WA Guineas (Gr 2, 1600m) winner Zipaway (Playing God) added to his Ascot stables after the colt was purchased by a syndicate for $350,000 early on day one of the Perth sale.
Premium Bloodstock Services’ Grant Burns signed the docket for the Western Breeders Alliance-consigned colt, the fourth foal out of Boutique (Discorsi), who is a half-sister to Group-winning sprinters Quilista (Scandal Keeper) and Red Can Man (Gingerbread Man).
“Neville knows the family well and he’s been bought for a syndicate of locals and we’re pretty happy to get him,” Burns said.
“He is a nice, big horse, Playing God is a terrific stallion and we know the cross works.”
Earlier, NSW trainer Brad Widdup made the most of his first trip to the Perth sale, going to $210,000 for a filly by Playing God and she will immediately head to the east coast.
“We are looking all around the place and she looks like a nice athletic filly, so we had to be pretty strong to buy her,” Widdup said. “They are better as they get older, which suits me, and she’s not a big filly, so she could get going as a two-year-old.
“It’s a bit of the great unknown, bringing a Playing God over to the east, but he’s done a great job over here and I suppose time will tell [if he’ll work on the east coast].”
Bred and sold by Forest View Farm, Widdup’s Playing God filly is the fifth foal out of five-time winner Angel Sky (Hurricane Sky).
It wasn’t just the Playing Gods that found favour, with yearlings by Hanseatic (Street Boss), Dundeel (High Chaparral), I’m All The Talk (Stratum) all making six figures early in the session, signalling buyers’ intent to pay up for horses they like.
China Horse Club enters WA fray
An eye-catching Brazen Beau (I Am Invincible) colt also held the Perth sale record – albeit for about half an hour – when leading Western Australian trainers Grant and Alana Williams teamed up with agent Suman Hedge to buy the Yarradale-consigned youngster for $375,000.
In a vote of confidence for the horse and the state’s racing industry, China Horse Club later bought into the son of the Darley sire as the international thoroughbred investor ramps up its presence in the west.
CHC’s involvement with the Williams’ comes after last year linking with Mogumber Park to stand Rubiton Stakes (Gr 2, 1100m) winner Marine One (Capitalist). The stallion covered 61 mares at a fee of $8,800 (inc GST) in his first season at stud in 2023.
“First and foremost, we have Marine One in Western Australia and the company decided that as we are established on the Gold Coast, Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide and I think the last frontier is Perth,” Singapore-based CHC founder Teo Ah Khing told ANZ Bloodstock News from Magic Millions’ Swan Valley sales complex.
“We’ve been watching this market for a while … and this is a long game and today it’s good to be able to race with the Williams’ and Suman. It’s the same formula [we use on the east coast], but in Western Australia.”
The Brazen Beau colt, whose pedigree is littered with Godolphin stakes winners Zapateo (Brazen Beau), Osborne Bulls (Street Cry) and Viridine (Poet’s Voice), is the second living foal out of juvenile winner Burgoyne (War Chant).
“We thought he was the best colt in the sale. We purchased some nice horses at [Inglis] Classic but I don’t think we saw one as good as him. He’s the nicest colt we’ve seen in the last month,” Grant Williams said.
“He has got a beautiful body, he’s nice and strong and he has a beautiful attitude. We were right on our limit, so we were hoping he wasn’t going to go any higher because we probably only had one more bid left in us.”
CHC also bought a Playing God filly out of a sister to Listed winner Cool Trade (Fair Trade) for $250,000, who will also be raced in WA.
The group’s Australasian representative Michael Smith echoed the effusive praise of Darling View Thoroughbreds’ Playing God.
“He really is an elite stallion; he’s like the Extreme Choice of the west,” Smith said.
“As part of our participation in the Western Australian market, we’ve bought a colt and a filly. We thought she was the best physical for a Playing God in the sale and we were fortunate to be able to buy her.”
A trainer for the J Farms-consigned filly, who is the second foal out of two-time winner Precious Cargo, has not been decided.
Smith said: “That’s one of the great things about Western Australia, there’s such depth in the training ranks. There’s a lot of fantastic trainers, astute breeders and we’re excited to be participating.”
CHC also sold a Zoustar (Northern Meteor) colt to trainer Lloyd Kennewell and agent Mathew Becker for $200,000 through the Willow Dale Farm draft.
Playing God averaged $149,762 with 21 yearlings by WA’s premier sire changing hands for an aggregate of $3.145 million.
The leading Book 1 buyers were father-and-son Peter and Luke Fernie who signed for seven yearlings at a spend of $830,000, while Parnham also bought seven yearlings for a spend of $740,000 and brothers Ben and Daniel Pearce bought 11 lots at a cost of $810,000.
Magic Millions WA manager David Houston described yesterday’s action as a great day, noting the level of involvement by interstate buyers was up significantly on 2023.
“We’ve grossed $600,000 more than last year, we’ve sold a record horse for $625,000 and our average is up $8,000 per horse, so you’ve got to be very happy with that,” Houston told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“Already the interstate buyers have bought 23 horses just on the first day as opposed to 13 across the whole sale last year, so that’s a tremendous investment, particularly by some of the leading players in the industry from the east.”
The Book 2 sale starts at 10am western standard time and Houston is confident there will be plenty of value on offer for the buyers.
“We averaged nearly $100,000 in Book 1 and not everyone has $100,000 to spend. There’ll be plenty of people around with $50,000 who will be well in the market, for sure,” he said.
“We’ve seeded the catalogue, but there’s a lot of nice horses coming through tomorrow. A lot of very buyable horses, so I wouldn’t be frightened to buy up at all.”
Sale results – Book 1
2024 2023
Catalogued 192 177
Offered 180 161
Sold 143 (79%) 143 (89%)
Aggregate $14,182,500 (+8%) $13,380,000
Average $99,178 (+6%) $93,566
Median $80,000 (+10%) $72,500
Top Lot $625,000 $350,000