An Education In Pinhooking
I get this email last September from our off-track trainer wanting to know if I would be interested in going in partners with her. The idea is to buy a Thoroughbred yearling at the Barretts Preferred Yearling sale coming up next month then sell it at their May, Two-Year-Olds In Training sale. She would provide the training up to the sale and I would provide the cost of feed, shoeing and vet bills. And, at the end we would split the ‘big’ bucks equally. Has anyone heard this story before? Please, bear with me. Remember, I’m new to this game. My wife says, “Sure, go ahead. You do it. I don’t really want to get involved (after all we’re not dealing with Arabians here).” So, after a few emails and telephone conversations, we decide on a plan. It was a meager plan (financially) by most anyone’s estimate. We decided that between the two of us we could scrape together $2500.00 for the initial purchase. Starting to get the idea here? We certainly aren’t talking big league. Our trainer is pretty sharp, however, most of her experience (like mine) is with Arabians. So, I started hitting the research. In a couple weeks I had data on every Thoroughbred that had gone through the Barretts sales over the last two years. I had information up the wazoo about the dollar-amount horses had sold for in October and what they went for in May. What sires were hot (in our price range) and the ones that were not. A lot of attention was spent on comparing price/pedigree/times (1/8 and 1/4 works). I did my homework and was proud of it. I was armed with data that I believed would lead to making an educated and informed decision. The weekend before the sale I spend the best part of two days looking at fifty or so horses. Due to varying schedules I was not able to view horses with our trainer, which was a mistake. I was on my own. I quickly learn I’m in over my head but view the situation as an educational juncture. With extensive data in hand I proceed down the aisles of opportunity in search of the perfect horse: Without a clue. The sale comes around; our trainer has picked out a horse (none of the ones I had highlighted from my vast studies) and says, “This is the one.” It’s a filly by Trail City by Red Ransom out of an Ack Ack mare, Notice My Ack. Being the professional I am, I casually drop all my notes in the trash and head for the sales pavilion. I know when to lead and I know when to follow. It all happened so quickly; she raises her hand a couple of times, the hammer drops and we become the proud owners of a yearling Thoroughbred filly. We are now on our way to pinhooking fame or ruin. I’m a willing and excited passenger: Still without a clue. So, we go down and pay for our new investment: A whooping $1650.00. Now, we’ve got to get her in the trailer and take her home. The trainers trailer is small. One of those older two-horse straight loads with a little escape hatch on each side. Ok for Arabians but a bit on the tiny side for Thoroughbreds. It was like loading this huge horse into a totally covered and enclosed starting gate. It was, to say the least, a project. Success was found in about 20 minutes and we were on our way down the road. I give most of the credit to the intellect of the horse. Challenge Number One Within days we are informed that our stabling facilities, which included a nice training track, is closing to the public and we need to find a new location. Great, exactly what our new venture needed. Challenge Number Two The best place we could find did not include a track, only a large arena that would allow for limited galloping. Ok, we really don’t need the track at this stage so we will live with what we can get and find a way to meet our future needs as they arise. In the meantime I introduce my wife to our new purchase. Having been somewhat distant to the project initially, after seeing this gorgeous creature she immediately falls in love with her and confirms we have made a good purchase. Challenge Number Three, Four, Five… Trainer moves to new home in upper desert area (California) and we move the horses up there. We loose a week or so of training in the move. The rains come, we loose a week or two. The horse throws a shoe and we loose a week (shoer only comes once a week to that area). The horse throws another shoe, we loose another week. It rains like crazy again, we loose, we loose, we loose. Seems like a routine is developing. She gets a minor booboo, we loose even more time. Before we know it we’re a couple months behind schedule. She is a beautiful horse with a sharp mind and a good dose of natural athletic ability. We’re all thinking we have a good prospect and, we’re not wearing rose-colored glasses or fooling ourselves. I’m a Capricorn, I like to deal in reality, that’s my comfort zone and this horse is giving me what I like. My concern at this point is with the time frame: Can we accomplish what we need by the sale date? And, most importantly, can we do it without jeopardizing the integrity of the horses’ condition? Faith and Reality Faith. It’s what the industry is built upon. You have to have faith in your trainer, your mentors, and your associates and mostly in yourself. As we get closer to the sale date we began to question our readiness, or actually the readiness of our horse. We also begin to have thoughts about keeping her and running her ourselves. It’s now time for a reality check. The bottom line is we aren’t financially in a position to campaign a Thoroughbred and need to wake up to our original goal: Buy – Sell – Learn. The Real Deal We’re now down to the nitty-gritty, the sale is only a few weeks away. We need a bloodstock agent to handle the sale to do it right. We contact one of the best agents in our area: She wants the horse now, nearly four weeks out from the sale. We hesitate. It’s expensive, $70.00 per day. We question our position. We’re running out of time. I call the tax consultant we’ve used for the past five years. His firm specializes in the horse industry, he’s involved in Thoroughbreds, knows the business and I’m looking for advice. He sets me straight by letting me know it is time to ‘suck it up’. He instructs me to consider our original goal (which was to buy and sell), and do whatever it takes to place the horse with the agent and let be what will be; good, bad or indifferent. In re-contacting the agent she says it’s now too late, can’t get it done in time. Needed the horse last week. She’s a bit concerned about taking horses that have not been trained at a ‘real’ facility and it’s just two weeks before the sale. I beg and I plead, presenting our case in person, on my knees. Finally, she agrees to ‘look’ at our horse (She said she can’t take grown men crying). If she likes what she sees she’ll give her a test ride before making a final decision. The Initial Test At 5:30 am on April 24th I pull into the Fairplex facility with My Baby My Baby (now her registered name) to present to the bloodstock agent. Damn, she looked good and came off the trailer in fine tune. She was placed in a stall, brushed down and made ready for presentation. To say the least the agent was surprised with what she saw. She expected an untrained and out of shape horse but was presented with a young ‘jewel’. She put her rider on her and took My Baby My Baby for a test drive. Both agent and rider were pleased and made the decision to accept our entry for the sale. We're in the show. Now the real fun starts Biting The Bullet I have to say, a day rate of $70.00 is big money to me. I’m wondering if I’ve stepped too far out of my league. Really, how much can we expect to get out of a $1650 investment? The day-rate alone will be more than we paid for the horse. Plus, there are all the sale commissions and vet charges to be considered. However, we are now in the ‘let it ride’ zone and there is no looking back. The commitment is made and we’ll live with the results. The True Test I don’t really agree with the procedure of running them, these horses are still babies, at least in my mind. But the buyers want to see them perform. If you want to sell at a good price you need to be prepared to have your horse do an eighth in a respectable time. We were short on time. ‘Baby’ didn’t have much speed training and we didn’t want to press the issue to the point of injury. The agent knew and was well aware of the, “too fast too soon” concept and brought her along at an acceptable pace given the time she had to work with her. She got in two one-furlong works before the preview and the agent was very pleased with how she was coming along. We get her re-shoed - $100.00, teeth floated - $60.00, clipped - $100.00 and $65.00 for the nameplate and leather halter. My Baby My Baby is now dressed to the 9’s and looking extremely good. I’ve been to see her work nearly every day for the past two weeks. The attachment is gnawing at my heart and I'm wishing we had the financial backing to run her oursleves. May 8th, 2003. It’s preview day for hip numbers 1-207. We’re number 117 out of over 400 horses in the catalog. I am a nervous wreck, have been since I got up at 4:30 am. After making my usual stall visit to rub a bit on Baby I meet our trainer at the Fairplex track about 10:00 am. We watch, chart, view and wonder how we’re going to do. After seeing a few horses take their "go" we decide we’ll be ok if Baby hits an 11.1 or 11.2. We’re trying not to be too optimistic. There are some really nice horses and both of us are doing our best to be realistic. We see her coming out from the barn area and as she parades by the grandstand we get a really good look at her. Damn, she looks sharp. She’s going to go the eighth by herself and the jockey starts to pick it up a little before the far turn and she starts the clock just at the beginning of the straight. Baby is looking fast but moves a bit to the right then straightens back out and rushes past us in a tremendous flow of beauty and speed. The clock stops at 10.4! Ten Four. Can you believe it? Baby just cut a beauty. I was so proud I thought I was going to cry. A damn 10.4, our horse, our Baby. Dear God, she looked terrific. We’re throwing the high-fives and grinning from ear to ear. When we went back to the barn it was all smiles from everyone: Agent, jockey, groomers, everybody was brimming with how well she had done. This bloodstock agent had 21 horses in her consignment at the start; twelve had been withdrawn by the training previews. Of the ones left none went faster on our day than Baby. It was a good day and a terrific feeling. As a comparison the best time for the day was a 10.1 by a filly called Iflookscouldkill. There was one at 10.2, another filly called Cat Carson by Carson City. Then there were ten at 10.3 and about 17 at 10.4. We’re in the top 30 of horses that ran one furlong on the first day. The second day the track was a tick faster and the best time was a 9.9 and there were a couple ten flats. All that is left now is waiting for Monday to roll around. Auction day will be the culmination of our efforts and the test of our endeavor into Thoroughbred pinhooking. The conversations now turn to the price we need My Baby My Baby to bring; our buy-back price. The bloodstock agent is very optimistic and thinks she could go for close to $20,000 if the market is strong. Twenty thousand dollars! I have a hard time seeing that number and find it difficult to really accept. I’m a Capricorn and reality is my nature. I set the buy-back price at $9000.00. At that amount we’ll make a couple dollars after expenses and will have had a good experience. The Sale Judgment day comes around and I’m at the barn early to see ‘Baby’ and rub on her as usual. My wife can't come. She has become too attached by now. She says she just can't see her go. I understand how she feels. I feel the same way but have a job to do and have to put my feelings aside. I walk the barns with the hope of maybe getting a feel for the mood of the sellers and the feedback they’ve had from potential buyers. There is a little concern about the strength of the market floating about but nothing substantial. It's now 1:00 and the first horse to go through is one in our agent’s consignment; a bay filly by Seacliff and gets a bid of $8000.00 but is not sold. By the time sixty or so have gone through the sales ring a pattern is starting to form. The market is not what some had hoped for. Our agent has one go through at $90k (a Grand Slam filly) and then another at $30K by In Excess. Both are horse way above the league of My Baby My Baby. As our hip number is getting close and having never sold a horse at auction, especially at something like a Barretts sale, I decide to elicit the help of our tax accountant. We have a short discussion about procedures and head for the sales pavilion. My trainer is seated already and I scoot in next to her with my accountant next to me. The auctioneer starts off at $10,000 but doesn’t get any action. Drops a bit more and still nothing. I’m getting concerned and feel a nudge from my accountant. When the bid drops to five thousand my account is jabbing me in the arm, “Get your hand up, you’ve got to get this started,” he says turning his head in my direction. I’m thinking, what? Bid on my own horse? He jabs me again and repeats his first statement. This is all happening in a matter of seconds, I feel my blood pressure rising and my hand goes in the air to start off the bidding. The bid then goes to six, it stalls for a moment or two and my accountant is jabbing at me again, “Get your hand up, get it up.” So, up goes my hand to bring the bid to $7000.00. My trainer is looking at me like I’m crazy, which I probably was in some form or other at that very moment. From seven the bid goes to nine and my account asks if I’m ok with that amount. I say yes and let the ‘market’ decide the price from there. Three other bidders carry on for a few more rounds and the final call ends up at $14,000.00. My Baby My Baby, the yearling we had bought just seven months before for $1650.00, goes through the Barretts Two-Year-Olds in training sale for $14,000.00. That was the biggest rush I had had in a very long time. My account tells me he thinks had I got in to start it off at seven or eight thousand she might have gone to sixteen or seventeen. But I didn’t care; I had learned a lesson or two and turned a profit. I had just completed the real-life course in Pinhooking 101a and passed with a B+. I thanked my accountant for all his help and realized I had learned more about the Thoroughbred auction world in three minutes than I had in seven months. My trainer and I go back to the barn to take a last look at Baby and to thank our agent and her team for a job well done. I made a point to thank the grooms that had taken such great care of Baby and they seemed to be as happy as I was. I have to admit I am going to miss Baby; she’s a good horse with talent and ability. Out of the 12 horses our bloodstock agent was left with seven sold for a total of $388,500.00 (one sold for $170K). The Numbers So, now for the dollars and cents of the project: Our total costs related to the sale were $4130 (commissions, agent fees for training, vet care, clipping, shoeing and x-rays). Taking that from the $14,000 left $9870, which my trainer and I split equally ($4935 each). My costs for feed and shoeing during the six or so months leading up to the sale were right at $1700.00 and my initial cost of $825.00 left me with a net profit of $2410.00. The way I look at it, I went to school, got my AA degree in Pinhooking 101a and got paid to do it. What more could you ask for? Who Am I? After 60+ years, ex-this and ex-that pretty much sums up my life. Hey, no complaints, it's been a really fun ride, and still is. The best is yet to come. Ex-professional photographer, Ex-Autoracing magazine publisher, Ex-Openwheel racecar driver, Ex-multi business owner - Im proud to say the only Ex I don't have is an ex-wife. Got nearly 20 good years in with this one and hoping for 20 more. I started my first business at the age of seven in the summer of '51. Picked strawberries at $.05 per basket and sold them for $.10 to my neighbors in a trailer park just a 'tick' from where Disney Land sits in Anaheim, CA. I learned lessons in sales, marketing, product demand, customer service and finance. Yes, there were folks I gave a $.10 basket of strawberries to and went back to later collect. Kindness I learned from my mother - and have used it my entire life. Hatred I learned from my dad, and have found little use. The lesson learned in the summer of '51 was to never wait for all the lights to turn green before heading to town. It was forever embedded in my little brain. |
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