The Pinhooking Game at the NZB National Weanling Sale

Next week’s New Zealand Bloodstock National Weanling Sale offers a great opportunity to purchase weanlings that hold the quality and value for future potential, either as a star on the track or a target for pinhooking.

Hardline (NZ) winning the $1m Karaka Million. Photo courtesy of Trish Dunell.

A textbook example of both pinhooking and racetrack success is the winner of this year’s $1m Karaka Million, New Zealand’s richest race, Hardline (NZ) (Showcasing).

Purchased from Haunui Farm’s draft at the 2013 National Weanling Sale for $43,000 by Hallmark Stud, he was offered again at the 2014 Karaka Select Sale where Liam Birchley Racing secured him for $130,000.

The average at last year’s weanling session was recorded just above $13,000 giving buyers at the Sale security they are taking home a valued investment.

Curraghmore Stud has been the leading vendor at the National Weanling Sale for the past nine consecutive years, giving them plenty of experience when it comes to pinhooking results, some of these include:

• At Karaka 2015, a Curraghmore Stud weanling graduate by Guillotine sold for $95,000 after being purchased for $20,000 as a weanling.
• The previous year, Curragahmore Stud sold a colt by Makfi for $55,000 at the National Weanling Sale who returned to Karaka as a yearling to make $170,000.

Prominent vendor Waikato Stud offered a host of talent for successful pinhookers at last year’s edition of the National Weanling Sale:

• An O’Reilly filly purchased for $60,000 at Karaka 2015 was initially offered as a weanling by Waikato Stud at $22,000.
• At Karaka 2015, a Waikato Stud graduate by No Excuse Needed, sold for $40,000 after being purchased for $11,000 as a weanling.

Other purchases at Karaka 2015 that were pinhooked from the National Weanling Sale include:

• A colt by one of New Zealand’s leading sires, Pins, was purchased as a weanling for $72,000 from Ancroft Stud, and was sold again, as a yearling, for $110,000.
• A Paul Moroney Bloodstock purchase for $60,000 at Karaka 2015, Thewayyouare colt, was initially sold as a weanling for $20,000 from the draft of Mapperley Stud.
• A $20,000 purchase from Haunui Farm, by their resident sire Showcasing, returned to Karaka 2015 and sold for $65,000.

While pinhookers often target colts as weanlings, this year’s Sale has plenty of depth in the filly ranks. There is a strong contingent of well-bred fillies from young mares that have appeal as both pinhooking prospects and carry residual value that will appeal as future racing and breeding prospects, including:

• Lot 101 – sired by Pierro, is out of stakes performer Prestigious Miss (Written Tycoon), runner-up in the Group 2 Hawke’s Bay Guineas.
• Lot 112 – sired by Mastercraftsman, is a half-sister to Group 1 winner Suavito (Thorn Park).
• Lot 216 – sired by Tavistock, is out of Zabeel mare All By Myself, a half-sister to Listed winner Single (High Chaparral).
• Lot 248 – sired by So You Think, is out of a half-sister to dual Listed winner See The World (Danzero).

This year’s National Weanling Sale offers 349 opportunities to secure the next sale ring star and future investment, and will be the first session through the ring on Day 1 and Day 2.

At the end of the weanling session will be the sale of yearlings, two-year-olds, unraced stock and racehorses. The third and final day will be the selling of broodmares and stallion shares to mark the end of the 2015 National Weanling, Broodmare & Mixed Bloodstock Sale (11 – 13 May).

Catalogues can be viewed online now. For further sale information or news at NZB visit www.nzb.co.nz.