Hawkesbury trainer Brad Widdup struck for the second time with a Perth Magic Millions graduate this month when Azure Angel made a winning debut at Scone on Tuesday.
The Playing God filly had been placed in a Warwick Farm barrier trial last month and firmed into $7 for the Select Events Maiden Plate (1200m). She settled midfield for Christian Reith and let down in the straight to score by over a length from Borderfall (Territories) and Avista (Maurice).
Azure Angel (3f Playing God – Angel Sky by Hurricane Sky) was a $210,000 buy for Widdup and Mulberry Racing owner Mike Gregg from the Forest View Farm draft at the 2024 Perth Magic Millions. “I told Christian she would be hard to beat,” Widdup said. “He gave her a patient ride and she has a terrific turn of foot.”
Widdup and Gregg have purchased a total of five fillies at the last two Swan Valley Yearling Sales and their first winner arrived on November 6 when Lynward Park-bred graduate Bondi Blossom (Bondi) broke through at Gosford.
“We didn’t go to Perth just to buy fillies,” Brad explained. “It was just the way it worked out, and we went back earlier this year and bought another Playing God filly from Forest View for $90,000.”
Darling View’s Champion Sire Playing God has sired 180 individual winners at a 69% strike-rate and Azure Angel is perhaps the first of them land a maiden in the Eastern States. Her dam Angel Sky (Hurricane Sky) won three races at Belmont with Grant Williams and had already foaled the I’m All The Talk city winners Angels Impact and Skytalker.
The 2025 Magic Millions Playing God – Truly Belong filly is from a NZ-bred Showcasing mare who won a Riccarton nursery before transferring to Perth where she added another three city wins and a placing in the LR Placid Ark Stakes for Peters Investments.
“The Perth horses we’ve seen over here have gone really well,” Widdup said after Bondi Blossom won at Gosford. “Playing God is a great stallion and I do like Azure Angel. All going well, we will be back again for the Magic Millions in February.”