Playing God will strip match-fit for his clash with top filly Dreamaway in the G1 WATC Derby at Ascot on Saturday.  He has drawn wide one outside the WA Oaks winner in barrier 14 for the $500,000 classic.

The Neville Parnham trained gelding was short of a gallop when run down in the LR Raconteur Stakes last weekend.  

Playing God (3g Blackfriars – Dolly Will Do by Rubiton) carried 59kg when beaten by Kim Garden in the Raconteur but drops back to the 56kg under the set weight conditions of the WATC Derby.

He won the G2 WA Guineas and G1 Kingston Town Classic late last year and added the Magic Millions 3yo Trophy in February before going east to finish third in the G1 Australian Guineas and G1 Australian Cup to Melbourne Cup winner Shocking.

“He’s travelled back from Melbourne well and he’s a class horse,” trainer Neville Parnham said.  “Last Saturday topped him off for the Derby.”

Parnham applied bar shoes for the Raconteur but Playing God won’t wear them in the Derby.  “There was a bit of a blow-out on the bulb of his heel,” Parnham said.  “He carried it in the Australian Cup but whether it bothered him or not, I don’t know.”

Playing God has won 6 of his 13 starts for Colin Loxton’s Cockatoo Ridge Syndicate.  He was a $27,0000 buy from Durham Lodge at the 2009 Perth Magic Millions yearling sale and a classic victory would send his earnings through the million-dollar mark.

He is by Victorian Derby winner Blackfriars and is a younger brother to God Has Spoken, a G3 winner of the WA Sires’ Produce Stakes and R J Peters Stakes.

Blackfriars (Danehill) stands at Durham Lodge and is the Sunspeed State’s leading sire this season with $2.39 million in earnings.  He is followed by Danetime ($1.36m), Viscount ($1.21m), Oratorio ($1.16m) and Hurricane Sky ($1.07m).