Run The Numbers – Railway delivers again for WA-based sires

Given Western Australia is a state where there are just three Group 1 races, and the travel of thoroughbreds east across the Nullarbor Plain to where Australia’s remaining 73 are staged is relatively rare, the chances for WA-based stallions to produce elite winners are few and far between.

On Saturday, Awesome Rock became just the second active WA stallion to have produced a Group 1 winner from within the state, thanks to his talented son, Watch Me Rock, winning the Railway Stakes.

As our feature preview last week discussed, Awesome Rock stands at Gold Front Thoroughbreds, the only stallion on a property owned and run by Sue and Allan Olive, who bred the son of Fastnet Rock, stayed in the ownership during his Group 1 winning racing career, and then took the decision to stand him at stud.

Thanks to Watch Me Rock, he has become the 12th son of his late champion sire to become a Group 1 producer himself. More importantly for WA, he joins Darling View Stud’s Playing God as the only active sire to have conceived a future Group 1 winner from within the state.

There are three other Group 1-producing stallions on duty in WA in 2025, Manhattan Rain, Shooting To Win and Super Easy, but that trio all arrived in the state after producing their respective Group 1 winners.

The Railway is WA’s most historically important race and has held Group 1 status since that system was internationally codified in 1979. It has also proven important for giving WA stallions their chance at an elite win, with three of the four past editions having been won by their progeny.

In the 2022 Railway, Trix Of The Trade became the sole Group 1 winner of Trade Fair, a one-time shuttling son of Zafonic, who eventually settled in WA permanently at Evergreen Lodge, then Lynward Park Stud and finally Alwyn Park Stud.

It was from his final crop that Trix Of The Trade emerged, winning his Group 1, four years after his sire’s death.

In 2023, it was the turn of Playing God as Bustler broke through in the Railway. He was his sire’s second Group 1 winner, following on from Kay Cee’s victory in the 2019 Kingston Town (now the Northerly) Classic.

While there has been a rush of WA-sired success in the Railway in recent times, before 2022, you need to go back to 2007 to find a winner of the race conceived in the state. That was El Presidente, who was sired by Cromarty Park resident Dante’s Fury.

Dual Railway winner Luckygray (2011 and 2013) was by Bradbury’s Luck, who did stand in WA, but not until after those Group 1 victories.

Going back to the start of the century, other WA-based stallions to have sired a winner of the Railway include Lynward Park’s Dauberval (Belle Bizarre), Bletchley Park (Modem) and Serheed (Northerly), Mungrup Stud’s Metal Storm (Covertly and Old Fashioned), Tilden Park’s Marooned (Hardrada) and Clairefontaine Stud’s Old Spice (Old Comrade).

Eleven of the 26 editions of the Railway since 2000 have been won by the progeny of WA-based sires.

Their record in the Northerly/Kingston Town Classic is not quite as strong, with nine of the 25 this century having been won by horses that were sired in WA.

The most recent of these was Playing God’s Kay Cee in 2019 (2023 winner Dom To Shoot is by Shooting To Win, who arrived in WA in 2022 – firstly at Oakland Park then at Yarradale – but the Group 1 winner was sired in the stallion’s time at Darley in New South Wales).

Before then, you have to go back to 2013 winner Ihtsahymn, a son of Ihtiram, who stood at Wayandah Farm and Taunton Vale in WA.

Playing God won the Kingston Town twice himself in 2010 and 2011 for his champion WA sire Blackfriars (Scenic Lodge), while others who have won with WA sires include Megatic (Danetime), Early Express (Dauberval), Modem (Bletchley Park) and Old Comrade twice (Old Spice),

Just one winner of the Winterbottom Stakes since it was elevated to Group 1 status in 2011 has been by a WA-based sire.

2012 winner Barakey was by Key Business, a one-time Rangeview Stud resident.

That means that since 2011, just six WA-based sires have had Group 1 winners in their home state, with Awesome Rock joining Playing God, Trade Fair, Ihtiram, Blackfriars and Key Business.  

More broadly, Awesome Rock became the sixth stallion to get their first Group 1 winner in this Australian racing season, joining St Jean, Ghaiyyath, Calyx, Bivouac and Ole Kirk.