Pinhooking
Generally the term is used for purchasing foals to sell as yearlings, yearlings to sell as breeze-up horses or fillies to sell as in-foal mares. Whatever your pinhooking requirements, Richard will be delighted to help you.
Richard has enjoyed considerable success pinhooking on behalf of clients including having turned sales prices of 28,000gns into £120,000, €42,000 into €130,000, 42,000gns into 110,000gns, 47,000gns into €120,000, 110,000gns into 220,000gns, 32,000gns into £102,000, €55,000 into €90,000, £40,000 into £80,000, €50,000 into 85,000gns, €48,000 into 80,000gns, £5,000 into £50,000, etc.
When pinhooking foals to sell as yearlings Richard usually purchases from the Goffs November and Tattersalls December foal sales (both held in November of the year the foal is born). Most foals are aged 7-10 months when purchased and are sold in the European yearling sales approximately 10 months later.
Some foals are selected for clients with Stud farms whilst others are selected and then placed by Richard on suitable farms – farms where the care, preparation and attention to detail will give your investment the best possible chance of return.
When selecting foals to pinhook Richard visualises what that foal will look like as a yearling and who will be there to purchase it. Athleticism, conformation, pedigree, sex, date of birth, future sale target and yearling sales results are all aspects which Richard will consider prior to purchase. As with all pinhooking the key ingredient is ‘price’. You don’t want to overpay otherwise your profit is gone but you also don’t want to purchase a foal and then have no-one look at it as a yearling or struggle to get it into a suitable sale. As a rule Richard likes to spend between £30,000 and £60,000 on a foal for pinhooking but the key is about value – it might be that a foal who costs £100,000 is great value because he or she is by a top stallion with a good pedigree and is correct and walks well.
Value is key again when purchasing yearlings to sell as breeze-up horses and fillies to sell as in-foal mares – you must be able to see a profit at the end. The breeze-up game is incredibly specialist and high risk. Not only do more injuries occur due to the nature of the game but it is also your last chance to sell as unraced. If your breeze-up horse does not sell then you invariably have to put the colours on it yourself, try to win and then sell it on at a later stage.
Fillies straight off the track to sell as in-foal mares can be a good way to pinhook. With the large annual dispersals from the likes of Darley, Shadwell & Juddmonte plus the smaller public auction sales and online sales platforms like www.wesellbloodstock.com there are often bargains to be had. Correct, athletic broodmares with good race records and strong pedigrees are highly prized assets throughout the World. Choosing the right stallion at the right level is a key decision as you need to be selling the mare back in-foal to a stallion that the market wants – it is also key the mare gets in-foal preferably with an early service date otherwise what you are re-selling is less appealing to potential purchasers.