A filly by Darling View Thoroughbreds stallion Playing God topped the leaderboard as records continued to tumble at the Perth Magic Millions Yearling Sale on Friday.
Ascot trainer Neville Parnham, in partnership with Santo Guagliardo (Ridgeport Holdings), paid $170,000 for the top-priced filly from Nickel Queen (Lot 304) during an outstanding Book 2 auction in the Swan Valley.
Parnham trained Playing God and his daughter Kay Cee to Group 1 triumphs in the Kingston Town Classic. “They come in all shapes and sizes,” he said “I saw this filly about a month ago and she’s come on since then. It was at the top-end of what we were prepared to pay but she presented really smartly.
Photo / Western Racepix
“Despite it being very late in the Sale, she was the one I really wanted and I did mention to Santo that she was one who did look a bit like Kay Cee.”
Offered by Western Breeders’ Alliance (as agent), she is the first foal of Nickel Queen (Uncle Mo) who won a Northam 2yo maiden for Lindsey Smith. She has a Playing God weanling colt and was bred back to him in November.
Sharing second place were fillies by Long Leaf and Playing God at $130,000. Simon Miller secured the Long Leaf – World Class filly (Lot 216) from Greenfields Lodge, while Paul Hunter bought the Playing God – Helena Miss filly (Lot 274) from Elvira Park.
Across the day over $5.94 million was traded on 118 lots sold at an average of $50,415 and clearance rate of 87%. The overall two-day gross of $19.42 million was also a record and the clearance rate across both books had reached 89% by Friday evening.
“I was quite confident we had a very strong buying bench and we had the interstaters come in and that helped no end,” Magic Millions Perth Manager David Houston said. “They’ve been away for a couple of years and probably didn’t quite realise how strong things have been here, last year particularly.
“They will come back and we will get stronger and stronger. Our stud farms have been reinvesting and it’s certainly coming to fruition at the moment.”