Pinhooking is still the place to be in this game.

[The Indomitable DrugS]

It wasn't a good day to be pinhooking Street Cry offspring I guess ...

Hip #71 By Street Cry out of Glimmering sold for 260K as a weanling - was RNA'd for 300K as a yearling - and today was RNA'd for just $22,000

Hip #157 By Street Cry out of Plata sold for 550K as a yearling last year - today he RNA'd for 295K.

[Linny]

An aquantance of mine bought about $1.5m worth of yearlings about 10 years ago to pinhook. This was the 2yo sales were becomming big and the market was at that time pretty stable. He bought 10-11 babies, not "superstars" but decent solid "get to the races" breeding with athletic looks and no medical issues.
Two died by January after incurring thousands in medical expenses. A filly ran off on a rider in Fla and charged through a fence and is now a pleasure horse with a chronic limp. The best colt got colic right before the sale and was an "out." (He sold later for a reduced price because the colic ended with surgery.) A couple RNA'd and he had to sell them privately or keep them to race, which he didn't want to do.
One of the colts who he paid about $100k for sold for almost a million and everyone was wowed by how well he'd done. The fact is that after expenses for shipping, breaking, training, board, shoes, vets, sales prep etc. He made about $150k for the entire lot.
He had alot go wrong, but the fact is that alot can go wrong and the big successes have to cover alot of disasters.

[Antitrust32]

Originally Posted by Linny

An aquantance of mine bought about $1.5m worth of yearlings about 10 years ago to pinhook. This was the 2yo sales were becomming big and the market was at that time pretty stable. He bought 10-11 babies, not "superstars" but decent solid "get to the races" breeding with athletic looks and no medical issues.
Two died by January after incurring thousands in medical expenses. A filly ran off on a rider in Fla and charged through a fence and is now a pleasure horse with a chronic limp. The best colt got colic right before the sale and was an "out." (He sold later for a reduced price because the colic ended with surgery.) A couple RNA'd and he had to sell them privately or keep them to race, which he didn't want to do.
One of the colts who he paid about $100k for sold for almost a million and everyone was wowed by how well he'd done. The fact is that after expenses for shipping, breaking, training, board, shoes, vets, sales prep etc. He made about $150k for the entire lot. He had alot go wrong, but the fact is that alot can go wrong and the big successes have to cover alot of disasters.

i'd be incredibly happy with that!

[Danzig]

the market being what it is, buyers are the ones in the catbird seat. i've read some recent articles in the BH and elsewhere-pinhooking is a down business right now. most of them are taking a hit. sure, you have the occasional big horse, but it may not cover the busts. then, factor in the tightening credit on top of the volatile market...hard to make money pinhooking right now.

[Linny]

I would too, but it's nice making anyone a millionaire. The point is that alot of folks figure that if a pinhooker buys a horse for $100k and re-sells for 850k, that they made a fortune. The "fudge factor" of horses that never make it to the 2yo sales, the injuries that keep them from training and sicknesses that cost a ton of money mean you can make a nice living but you are not as rich as folks think you are.
For the amount of risk and the money (or credit) you have to have up front, it's not an easy way to make $150k. Decent middle management jobs with a weekly salary and no risk and good benefits can be had for $150k.

It's easy to demonstrate 10 or 20 horses a year that were huge scores and make it look like pinhooking is easy money.