Playing God has scooped the pool winning the 2023-24 WA General and 2YO Sires’ premierships to emulate legendary local stallions Haulpak and Scenic.
The Darling View Thoroughbreds resident sired 63 individual winners of 107 races for record earnings of $7,935,892. His 2yo division included 6 individual winners and $592,345 of that overall total by season’s end on Wednesday.
Scenic (Durham Lodge) in 2005-06 and Haulpak (Heytesbury Stud) in 1990-91 have been the only other stallions to win both categories in the modern era. His own sire Blackfriars (Danehill) won 12 titles in a row until 2021-22.
Playing God took over to claim his first title last season and it always looked like being a successful defence this term as early as November 25 when Zipaway won the G2 WA Guineas (1600m) and Bustler the G1 Railway Stakes (1600m).
Bustler (Steven Parnham) wins the G1 Railway Stakes / Photo: Western Racepix
The Neville Parnham-trained stablemates banked a combined $1,114,700 within 30 minutes of each other on that memorable afternoon at Ascot. “That was our best-ever day on a racecourse,” Darling View manager Brent Atwell said while recalling the celebrations that followed.
“It was unbelievable and so emotional and we didn’t even own them!”
Atwell, his parents Clive & Trish and his wife Kasey made do sipping a coffee to celebrate the titles with their staff on Thursday morning at Mundijong. “There’s a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes and we couldn’t do it without such a great team.
“We took the plunge to buy Playing God in 2020. We had a good opinion of him and so did a lot of good judges but I don’t think anyone could have predicted what he’s achieved. And to sit alongside a champion sire like Haulpak is amazing.”
Playing God covered his first Darling View mares at a $13,200 service fee and that’s increased book-by-book to $49,500 this year. He stands alongside Splintex ($11,000) and Lightsaber ($6,600). Service fees (inc GST) and Brent Atwell can be contacted for bookings or further information on 0408 648 100.
