Not since Beau Sovereign in the 1980s has Western Australia had a sire as captivating to eastern-state buyers as Playing God is now, recognition expected to fuel intense competition between locals and interstate investors over the next two days.
The champion Western Australian sire, who has been represented by five stakes winners this season, including Railway Stakes (G1) winner Bustler and has 42 lots set to go under the hammer in the Magic Millions Perth Yearling Sale, which starts Feb. 22.
The interest in the Darling View Thoroughbreds sire’s offspring could transcend what has been a honeypot principally for Western Australian buyers. Veteran Perth agent John Chalmers believes that’s about to change.
“It is not often that our stallions get recognized in the east, but it was interesting that when I was in New Zealand (for Karaka) a number of eastern states people and New Zealand people said to me, ‘Gee, you’ve got a good stallion over there in Playing God,'” Chalmers told ANZ Bloodstock News. “He’s been highly recognized, and it probably goes right back to the days of Beau Sovereign since I have heard any comment about our stallions here.
“He’s doing enough to encourage eastern-state buyers to buy (progeny of a) Western Australian stallion.”
Mungrup’s Gray Williamson, the man who stood Playing God until the horse was transferred to Darling View Thoroughbreds, will offer the sister to the Neville Parnham-trained Bustler and the half sister to the Trevor Andrews-trained A Lot Of Good Men, who finished third in the Feb. 21 listed Challenge Stakes at Ascot.
Three-year-old A Lot Of Good Men was also three times stakes-placed during the Pinnacles Carnival at Ascot last November and December while his yearling half sister is set to go through the ring in the second hour of the sale as Lot 41. Williamson says the attraction is based on Playing God’s ability to throw sound horses who train on, noting some of his first crop 8-year-olds are still in training.
“Playing God has gone ahead in leaps and bounds, and his stats show him being up in that league with I Am Invincible for stakes winners to runners; that’s pretty damn good,” Williamson said. “He should just continue on, and once a few more get over east, people will start coming over specifically to buy some of these Playing Gods, and that’s already started. That’s going to happen.”
Playing God, of course, will capture the headlines but the increased depth of the WA stallion ranks also provides buyers with diversity to access the lucrative Westspeed incentive scheme.
With a draft that includes a Hellbent filly, a full sibling to the stakes-placed Bohemian Daisy and a half sister to fellow stakes performer Spiritual Pursuit, Mogumber Park’s Colin Brown said sweltering conditions have made it harder to judge the level of interest from the buying bench.
“This will be one of the hardest sales to judge because of the impact of the weather, and as a result, we haven’t had people rolling through,” Brown said Wednesday. “Today’s a bit different as it’s a bit cooler, but we’ve had interruptions all the way through (due to the heat). That said, all of the people that you would hope to see the draft, the locals in particular, have come through.
“There’s been a lot of excitement about the catalog, so we do create our own environment here, and hopefully, that will hold (the market) up as we are in our own bubble over here.”
Last year, Magic Millions WA manager David Houston said demand would outstrip supply, a prediction which led to a stunning clearance rate of 91% for Book 1 at an average of AU$91,723 ($59,620; AU$1=$0.65) and a median of AU$70,000.
Twelve months on and Houston remains confident about the next two days that will begin with today’s 192-lot session while also being mindful of the fact an extra 25 horses have been cataloged for this year’s sale.
“To maintain last year’s average, we’ll probably have to find another AU$1 million to AU$1.2 million, and that would set a Western Australian record of over AU$21 million, so that’ll be a test,” Houston said.
“There’ll be very good support on the top end of the market, but there’ll be a lot of opportunity throughout the catalog.”
