Pinhooking: Paradise or Purgatory?

Pinhooking is a risky old business, but then again, so is breeding. Pinhookers at least have the chance to observe a live animal in front of them, watch them walk up and down and make their judgments accordingly. Those who have been around young stock for many a year can make an educated guess as to how a particular youngster may continue to develop, and work out if there are certain aspects which can be helped though improved nutrition or judicious farriery. Then there are the random elements, for better or worse, over which they have no control: illness, injury, a sire suddenly going hot or cold, or a major update in the family. 

These are early days in this year's yearling season, with plenty of major sales yet to come, and while the expansion of the sales season to its current crowded calendar is often rued by participants, there are clearly more than enough horses being bred to create strong demand for places. Whether there are enough buyers to go round will be the more salient point and, following a recent steady rise in the foal crop numbers, it would be no surprise to see those figures drop again if the current season continues as it has begun.

Following an eight-day period in which 886 yearlings passed through the ring in Doncaster and Newmarket, at two pretty comparable sales, it is worth taking a look at how the pinhookers have fared so far at that more commercial end of the market. 

While these workings cannot be completely accurate to the pound, euro or guinea, they are more than just scribbles on the back of a cigarette packet and take in the prices listed by the sales companies at the time of foal and yearling sales,. We have added a running cost of £12,000 for keep, feed, veterinary, shoeing, sales prep and sales entry fees. Depending on whether someone has their own farm, or where they choose to board a horse, will obviously mean that costs for each individual can vary significantly. And it is worth noting that sometimes a horse can appear to be bought and sold by different names but have actually not changed ownership at all. 

With these caveats, let's call this an overview of the pinhooking situation so far. We'll deal with the two British yearling sales first.  

Goffs UK Premier Yearling Sale

Sale as a whole:
460 lots offered
381 sold (83%)
£15,047,500 turnover
£39,495 average
£30,000 median

145 lots pinhooked as foals:
54 made a profit (37%)
86 sold at a loss (59%)
Five broke even
Average profit £20,800
Average loss £17,500

A pinhooking highlight here was provided by lot 167, the daughter of Churchill (Ire) who had been bought for €22,000 as a foal and sold by Peter Nolan to Richard Ryan on behalf of Teme Valley Racing for £100,000.

Tattersalls Somerville Yearling Sale 

Sale as a whole:
426 lots offered
316 sold (74%)
9,101,715gns turnover (£9,556,800)
28,252gns average (£29,664)
22,000gns median (£23,100)

118 pinhooked as foals:
34 made a profit (29%)
79 sold at a loss (67%)
Five broke even
Average profit 18,670gns (£19,600)
Average loss 17,750gns (£18,600)

There was much praise for teenager Ruairi Kilmartin, who bought a Dark Angel (Ire) filly for €7,000 at Goffs last November and sold her to Paul Corrigan for 70,000gns at Tattersalls with a nice update provided by full-sister Heritage House (Ire).

The European season of course kicked off in France in August with Arqana's elite yearling sale. At this level, there are fewer pinhooks but they have naturally been bought for higher prices as foals. The risks are greater but so too can be the rewards. The picture does indeed look quite different here, with the profitable transactions outweighing the loss-makers, but pinhooking at this level is a brave man's (or woman's) game.

Al Shaqab Racing's €400,000 purchase of lot 315, a Camelot (GB) colt out of Soul Music (Ire) (Dark Angel {Ire}), provided a great return for Kildaragh Stud. He had been bought for €80,000 at the Goffs November Foal Sale.

Arqana August Yearling Sale

Sale as a whole:
292 lots offered
226 sold (77%)
€50,577,000 turnover
€216,881 average
€140,000 median

30 pinhooked as foals:
20 made a profit (66.6%)
10 made a loss (33.3%)
Average profit €124,650
Average loss €74,200

Pinhooking, for some, has become almost as much of a sport as actually racing a horse, and the experienced participants are a hardy breed. Behind the headlines, there are plenty who appear to have had their fingers burned, though the extent of that is also hard to ascertain as many pinhookers work in syndicates to spread the risk, with one decent sale often keeping the whole operation afloat if a few don't make the grade. Whether the dabblers will be put off by recent results will only become apparent as the foal sales get underway later this year, and in the meantime the breeze-up buyers have already been making the presence felt and will doubtless be active during Keeneland's September Yearling Sale, which starts on Monday.