Everything is Dandy

Written By George Allen

Newsletter #56

George talks…

I usually leave the stable tour until the end, often because we didn’t have much news!

This week has been different.

COUNTERATTACK stepped into the rough and tumble of handicap company for the first time on Thursday. He was slow away from the stalls and plugged on to finish a rallying 3rd . He came out of the race in great shape and will most likely be on the lorry for a trek up north to Newcastle. The race George and Thomas have in mind is over a little further which will suit. He will be more street wise and a little slimmer for his first battle to the finish line, we are looking forward to battle no.2 next week.

ATTRAZIONE has been pleasing Thomas. On Tuesday she received a rating of 52, which in our eyes is very workable. A step up in trip is on the cards for this game filly. We believe there is scope to improve with her first run on turf as her work on the grass for George has more zip about it. She will receive entries next week.

Yesterday we had a much better showing from CANADIAN FIRE. She ran a race full of credit, took up the lead which wasn’t the plan, giving the more experienced favourite a perfect tow into the race. She absolutely hated the track and will step forward for that run once again for sure. Paul only gave her one serious reminder and looked after her in the final furlong. Fourth beaten a couple of lengths off the winner (rated 78) with a large gap back to the horses behind was very encouraging. She showed enough speed to drop back in trip, but we will keep all options open going forward, we are just delighted she has produced her morning form on the track.

Our three active horses in training are all close to knocking on the “winners” door in the next couple of weeks. As we all enjoy the exploits of the 2022 crop on the track, we have to look forward to next year and stock up the ammunition for 2023. We want to grow year on year, more horses equates to more chances of winning, more owners involved with us and more news to write about here!

New Addition

Last week we managed to secure a deal on a Dandy Man yearling filly that went through the Tattersalls Somerville sale unsold for £16,000, lot 38. The filly is a marvellous walker with a bonny attitude. She was a little lost at the sale as she wouldn’t be your typical speedball precocious filly.

Once we had secured the filly our first phonecall was to Kevin Philippart de Foy, he had seen her at the sale and liked her. His orders like the rest of the buying bench was for a precocious 2 year old. This filly will not be your early type 2 year old but will definitely be out running at two, just in the latter half of the season.

Dandy Man fillies are tough, hardy and game runners, we believe this filly will be a 6/7 furlong horse with a view to progressing into her 3 year old career.

she is out of a mare by American Behemoth sire Medaglia d’Oro from a. family with deep American speed, I have a feeling myself she may come to hand quicker than we think.

We ran a survey on the type of yearling you would be interested in purchasing a few weeks back. The “majority” of the replies preferred a filly to be competitive at 2 and progress to 3.

This is the exact filly for that profile.

As always we realise the shares firstly to you guys here, our subscribers. There are 50 shares left in this filly.

Take a look at her shares page here.

Dandy Man x Royal Order

Copycat

I’m very chuffed by your reaction to my newsletter from last week. Reading the Racing Post Friday, I noticed that none other than Mark Johnston was relaying the same concerns. Read his article, his effort at putting his thoughts into writing was executed more astutely than me!

Joking aside, Mark Johnston is the winning most trainer in the UK, who now trains with his affable son, Charlie. Mark was and still is an innovator, I recently read his autobiography and found it particularly entertaining and revealing, commonly racing autobiographies are the exact opposite.

I won’t name names.

Mark writes his musings in a newsletter to dispatch to all his owners on a regular basis. I stumbled across the Kingsley Klarion during my college years inbetween hangovers. I read the articles on the website weekly (link to website here) and I loved them. The raw information easily outweighed the usual blarney you hear from trainers. As I matured, I ended up founding this syndicate and duly gravitated towards this method of communication i.e. writing newsletters!

I copied Mark first I suppose, so I won’t hold it against him! So, thanks Mark for the inspiration, I won’t be complaining to the Racing Post about plagiarism.

Goffs

Mark and Charlie will certainly be trudging the barns this weekend at Goffs, Ireland. The Goffs Orby sale commences next Tuesday, with showing starting Sunday morning. Dubbed as Ireland’s National yearling sale, this is a showcase of Ireland’s best yearlings. Although I must admit, many of the top top yearlings bred in Ireland and the expensive pinhooks head over to Tattersalls Book 1 and dare I say it, Book 2.

The addition of the Goffs Million to the Orby sale is a punch that packs weight and should help stem that tide. The inaugural Goffs Million (round 2) was won yesterday by Charlie Hills and owner Gary Robinson collecting €600,000, read the full article on the win, it’s a fantastic story.

But bagging a pot of over €600,000 will turn many heads to invest in the very best yearlings at Goffs this week. Kudos to Goffs for putting the race back on, they had a torrid time during Covid where they even had to stage the Orby at their sister company premises, Goffs UK Doncaster, the sale turned out a disaster with all the key metrics down.

Thankfullly things are looking up for our flagship yearling sale.

Ratoath

Tattersalls Ireland were back at Ratoath for their September yearling sale this week. A real trainer’s sale with a reputation for producing runners. We were active at the sale but didn’t pick up one that suited.

Aside from the runners, the September sale attracts a plethora of pinhooks. While every yearling sale will have pinhooks, this sale stands out to me as one where all the major and minor stud farms will have a pinhooked “leg” to sell.

But what does pinhooking mean?

Pinhooking / 'pinhʊkin. To buy a commodity, originally tobacco, with the expectation of selling it later for a profit. The term is an old Kentucky tobacco term used when a speculator would buy a farmer's young plants and later identify them with a pinned note at market. Buying the plants low and selling high would return substantial profit for the speculators.

In bloodstock, pinhooking refers to buying:

·       Foals to sell as yearlings

·       Yearlings to sell as breeze-up horses

·       Fillies to sell as in-foal mares

In the case of the Tattersalls Ireland September yearling sale, it’s pinhooking foals to yearlings. This is an art and a science simultaneously. The most successful pinhookers seek one thing. Potential! Be it potential in the foal’s physique improving and/or the potential of a pedigree upgrade.

This week in Tattersalls there were some mammoth “touches”.

·       Due Diligence filly €6000 to €78,000.

·       Tasleet colt €2000 to €43,000.

·       Sioux Nation colt €20,000 to €100,000.

I must admit it all looks great initially, to make such profits in the space of 12 months. But pinhooking when it goes wrong, can go terribly wrong. I’ve seen pinhooks lose tens of thousands, but that’s the game. I read on Twitter how many have lost thousands on the recent crypto market purge, same emotions at play, different commodity!

If you pinhook at the upper level of the market and spread your risk through a number of horses differentiating on sires, sales, and physical type, it’s quite a safe alternative investment.

If you are examining sales results and would like to check the pinhooks. You can find previous sale prices for yearlings on the Racing Post website.

Here's a link to the Tattersalls Ireland previous offered lots.

They have this information and more on every sale internationally.

There’s so much more to talk about in relation to pinhooking and it’s something that I will come back to in future newsletters as I know you may find this topic interesting. I’ll break down the risks, benefits, costs and helpful tax implications of investing in bloodstock.  

This week coming…  

  • Goffs Orby & Sportsman Sale

  • Tattersalls October Auction Stakes Newmarket

  • Sun Chariot Stakes Newmarket

  • William Hill Trophy Redcar

  • Arc Weekend Longchamp

All the best,

George

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George Allen https://www.Brownsbarnthoroughbreds.com
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