Playing for Keeps

Cover image courtesy of Thoroughbred Breeders WA

He’s the pride of Western Australian breeding now, but there was a particular day where sire sensation Playing God actually went to the races with the form guide showing him as a gelding.

Playing God is expected to be the star act at this week’s Magic Millions Perth Yearling Sale, with 42 yearlings catalogued across the two days. His tally of stakes winners now numbers 16 and continues to grow as his progeny earnings power past $22 million.

But a conversation that took place after his very first racing campaign in the first half of 2010 nearly put paid to any of that happening for the son of Blackfriars.

WA Hall of Fame trainer Neville Parnham takes great joy these days in telling the story of how he had some explaining to do to stewards on the day Playing God returned for his second preparation, as he had completed paperwork on an intended gelding operation that never eventuated.

“There is a humorous side to this story of Playing God, which might amuse people,” Parnham said.

“After his first preparation when he started in the Sires and started favourite and got beaten in a midweek, I rang the owner (Colin Loxton) and said he was ready to go for a spell.

“As a young colt he was pretty noisy in the stable, roaring and screaming when you put a horse next to him and I said to Colin he might be better off gelded.

“He sort of didn’t say anything on the other end of the phone, because we had left (full brother) God Has Spoken as a colt and I just got that gut feel that he hesitated.

“So I said we don’t have to do it now, we will let him spell and when he comes back, we will do it then.

“He goes, ‘Oh no geld him if you want to’. So I just said I will have another think about it.

“So he comes back from a spell, and he came in and was quiet as a mouse.

“He was like a gelding. I said to my foreman, those two geldings had come in, put them in that stable. He said, ‘That’s a colt’ and I said, ‘Really?’ Then it came back to me, ‘That’s right I didn’t geld him, but he’s nice and quiet now so I don’t have to’.

“So we left him as a colt and he just returned to racing and bolted in and went on a winning streak.

“The other funny part to the story is that when he came back into the stable, I put him in as a gelding and never changed it. So when he had his first start back as a 3-year-old, he raced in the racebook as a gelding. I had to knock on the stewards' door and tell them I’d made a mistake.

“Luckily, he wasn’t a gelding. He would have been a loss to the industry over here. He’s been a phenomenon because he just turns up and produces winner after winner.”

A Darling at his new home

Family-run Darling View Thoroughbreds is the current home of Playing God.

The now 16-year-old stallion first stood at the Atwell family farm in 2020. They have 43 youngsters in their draft at this week’s sale, an auction Stud Manager Brent Atwell concedes is “our Grand Final.”

Playing God is naturally the linchpin of the family’s draft, but at the time, it was a big decision Atwell and his father Clive made to secure the horse.

“Originally when Mungrup were dispersing their bloodstock we found out Playing God was going to be on the market and we thought if we ever wanted to take a step up and become a more commercial farm, then we needed to get a headline act,” Atwell said.

“I remember the conversation (with Clive). We were around at the machinery shed and I said there’s an opportunity we really need to look at and that’s to buy Playing God.

“He said, ‘Oh righto’, but I told him I was dead serious, so we had a chat about it and that’s where it started.

“At that point in time he was starting to do some good things and we felt relocating him closer to Perth would also help a lot of breeders. We’re only 40 minutes out of Perth and ever since he’s gone from strength to strength.

“It’s amazing, something you only ever dream of. Like I say we had to decide if we were going to become more of a commercial act and thankfully, we took that step.”

Like the vast majority of stallions, Playing God had to make his way from the ground up. Last spring he covered 144 mares off a fee of $33,000 (inc GST). That’s a far cry from his first three years at stud, where his fee fell from $6600 (inc GST) to $4400 (inc GST) and he had live foal crops of just 37, 29 and 19.

That first group of 37 have been the catalyst for what is now WA’s great stallion success story.

Among them have been five individual stakes winners (of eight black type races) from 29 runners and 23 individual winners in total.

Playing God has managed to maintain the momentum, with his stakes winners to runners ratio almost 10 per cent.

“From his first crop he had 2-year-old stakes winners, then he had the Group 1 winner in Kay Cee, but his popularity in the sales ring, the mares he’s been serving have just been getting better all the time,” Atwell said.

“It’s been a gradual rise but at the same time we’re trying to look after the horse and make sure the longevity is there.

“Having said that, every year we’ve put the service fee up, he’s covered more mares.”

Playing God first climbed into the top 50 on the General Sires’ list last season, finishing 37th with earnings of $5.7 million banked by 43 winners, of which four won black-type races.

He is poised to comfortably better those numbers this season.

He is currently in the top 25 on the Australian General Sires’ list, despite having had just 102 runners. To put that into perspective, the only stallions ahead of him on the list with less runners are Teofilo (Ire), who had Without A Fight (Ire) land the Cups double, and Discreet Cat (USA), whose lone runner in Australia this season is the Golden Eagle winner Obamburumai (Jpn).

Playing God’s $4.8 million in earnings this season is from 42 individual winners and five stakes winners of seven stakes races, headed by the G1 Railway winner Bustler.

The pride of the West

Both Parnham and Atwell take great pride in what Playing God is doing for the Western Australian breeding industry and how far he’s come from relatively humble beginnings.

Parnham, who has been the trainer of nearly half of Playing God progeny stakes wins, recalls him being far from a standout at the yearling sale and in fact it was only because Colin Loxton was racing his older brother God Has Spoken that they even bothered bidding on Playing God.

“God Has Spoken was a very mature, big strong horse. This horse was quite narrow and really didn’t look that great at the yearling sale,” Parnham said.

“Fortunately for Colin, he was pretty keen to buy God Has Spoken’s brother. He just said we would give him a bit of time and we picked him up for less than 30 grand.”

He would go on to win eight races and $1.6 million in prizemoney. He was a Group 1 winner of the Kingston Town (now Northerly) S. in 2010 and 2011 and placed in another five Group 1 races, including four in Melbourne.

“He went off to stud and I thought he was probably going to succeed, but I’ve been really taken back at how much he has been able to achieve as a stallion,” Parnham said.

“There have been some smaller compact ones that run, there have been the rangier types that take a bit of time, but they run, the ones that are a bit like him, athletic style, they have been the better ones, but it doesn’t take away from the fact they all seem to have better-than-average ability.

“He’s got a great percentage of stakes winners to runners and it’s just unbelievable what he has done and what he has done for this breeding industry on this side of the country.”

The Atwell name had been written in WA racing folklore for almost a century, with Brent’s great-grandfather Walter Atwell owning and training the 1925 Perth Cup winner Great Applause.

The current generation of the family are proud to be writing their own little bit of history.

“People say have you had interest from the eastern states? And yes, we have, but at the end of the day, we need a proper horse here too,” Atwell said.

“It’s great for racing, it’s great for breeding, everyone wants to have one in their yard. It is humbling to have a horse like him on the farm, but it’s not all about us, it’s about the WA industry, it’s great to see everyone can kind of be involved in the horse.

“He’s a gem to have. When they are going as good as he is, you love to give them a pat every day and make sure everything is good. He’s good to have around and an easy horse to have on the farm.”