Restraint the watchword for weanling-to-yearling pinhookers

LEXINGTON, Ky. – The Thoroughbred auction calendar runs in an annual cycle with each segment of the marketplace’s season influenced by the one before. That has certainly been the case as first-crop weanling sires, including Triple Crown winner Justify, debut at this month’s November mixed sales in Kentucky.

Many weanling-to-yearling pinhookers achieved lower profits during the recently completed yearling sale season, as buyer restraint due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic led to lower prices and an already selective marketplace becoming even more so. And thus, pinhookers have in turn operated with restraint in restocking with weanlings for next year – and the sales have become a bit of a buyers’ market for end users, those who intend to race their weanling purchases themselves.

“I don’t think there is any question that weanling pinhookers that bought in 2019 and sold in the 2020 market had a very difficult year, so I think it stood to reason that there would be a little more restraint overall with the pinhooker group, and some of the high-priced weanlings were sold to end users,” Fasig-Tipton president Boyd Browning Jr. said after the company’s Kentucky fall selected mixed sale on Sunday. “We know the targets get a little bit narrower. I think there was a little more hesitancy on the weanling side of things tonight than there would have been a year ago.”

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The highest-priced weanling at Fasig-Tipton was a $600,000 colt from the first crop of Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile and Pegasus World Cup winner City of Light, purchased by Larry Best, who will eventually race his purchases in the name of his OXO Equine. Moving on to the elite Book 1 portion of the Keeneland November breeding stock sale the following day, two weanlings matched that $600,000 price, both also going to end users. A colt from Justify’s first crop sold to Donato Lanni, who acts as agent for many of trainer Bob Baffert’s clients. A colt by fellow Triple Crown winner and Coolmore stallion American Pharoah also sold for $600,000 to M.V. Magnier of Coolmore, which strongly supports its young stallions in the auction ring.

The five highest-priced weanlings of Keeneland’s Book 2 were a $475,000 Justify colt purchased by Magnier; a $450,000 Mastery colt purchased by Best; a $435,000 Justify colt purchased by Baccari Bloodstock; a $400,000 Into Mischief colt purchased by Best; and a $400,000 Mastery colt purchased by Stonestreet Farm.

“I tend to go earlier now for [weanlings] as opposed to waiting for them to be yearlings,” said Best, who has bought a half-dozen weanlings thus far at Keeneland to go with his Fasig-Tipton leader. “You take more risk, but you are not spending the same amount of money. You might get two or three shots on goal for what you’d be paying at the yearling sales.”

The lone pinhooker on that leaderboard in Book 2 was Chris Baccari, who said he believes Justify’s first weanlings will have major resale value, judging by their physicals, their strong reception in this marketplace, and the likelihood of Coolmore and others supporting him in the yearling market. Justify averaged $305,000 from three weanlings sold at Fasig-Tipton, and is averaging $427,000 from five sold through the first two books at Keeneland.

“Anybody that looks at him when he goes to be resold will see he looks like he has plenty of bone and looks like he can take a lot of training,” Baccari said of his purchase. “The public is going to support [Justify] now and his yearlings. He was a very good racehorse, and I’m a big fan. [This colt] reminds me of his sire. He has a lot of raw strength like he did. The mare is a good producer, and that is what I’m looking for. That is what determines the value to me.”

As Keeneland moves beyond its first two books into the remainder of the sale, which runs through Nov. 18, the company’s director of sales operation, Geoffrey Russell, believes pinhookers will play more of a role in the marketplace.

“I think pinhookers, you’ll probably see as they go further on in to the sale, they’ll get more and more into it,” Russell said. “I think we expected that they’ll probably play at a little bit lower level than they’ve played in the past based on the results of this year.”