by Ellen Harey, Harness Racing Communications

Harrisburg, PA — When the Standardbred Horse Sale resumes on Thursday morning (Nov. 5) at 10 a.m. the youngest equines at the sale, weanlings born in the early part of this year, will be among the first to sell.

The practice of buying a weanling with an eye toward selling it a year later as a yearling is called pinhooking. It can be a lucrative line of business for the horseperson with a well-studied eye of young horses.

The weanlings at the Standardbred Horse Sale start at hip No. 1077 and end with hip No. 1092.

In November 2014, Kadillac, a son of Kadabra and Proactive Gal, was purchased at less than seven months of age by Senena Esty of Spring Haven Farm for less than $10,000. On Nov. 3, 2015, the same colt, all grown up now, sold for $260,000.

“I have pinhooked since I can remember,” says Esty. “It’s just a way for us to get business done and one of our means to an end. We’re always looking for something with pedigree that matches the conformation.

Esty says you cannot be more forgiving of a weanling than a yearling.

“If they don’t have the conformation as a weanling, they’re not going to have it as a yearling,” she says. “You can’t terribly toe out or terribly toe in. You have to have a decent set of hocks, not sickle hocked. Those are hard to grow out of. You just look at the whole presence, the whole picture. They’re going to have to grow up at an even rate.

“That’s what we do for a living — we raise babies. We watch them; we know the stages of their growth. It’s not something you can learn in five minutes. Often I will get to a sale and I almost have to put blinders on, that’s when I go to work. We’ve done pretty well for the most part over the years, or we would have quit doing it, but I’ll never do this (margin of profit with Kadillac) again.

“We don’t have a formula, we just know what works. I know I can’t go crazy and spend an exceptional amount of money on a weanling and make a profit as a yearling. Of course, I had him (Kadillac) highlighted and starred and wondered if I could afford him, but it worked. You can’t overspend, that eats your profit.

“You have to be careful because often there is a reason for those babies to be in the sale. Why is the farm selling them? It’s a very risky thing, often there are reasons and some things are fixable. A blacksmith can help you a lot, deworming and great nutrition. One man’s junk is another man — or woman’s — treasure.”

Bob Boni of Northwood Bloodstock Agency echoes Esty’s advice.

“First of all, you have to buy a nice looking colt,” he said. “You hope it’s a family that maybe has enough things that can happen going forward and you get a little lucky.

“You don’t want a small one; you want one that’s a good size or better. It’s just like looking at a yearling. Stick to the basic principles; make sure you do your homework. It’s a combination of pedigree and conformation. Hopefully you pick the right one, the right sire, the right jurisdiction and hope everything improves a little bit from where you are this year for next year (the year the youngster will sell as a yearling).”

“It’s all developmental,” says David Reid of Preferred Equine Marketing, Inc. “You really have to have good judgment and a good eye for how you think the horse will develop and mature, conformation wise. Practice (looking at young horses through their growth spectrum) helps and I really think it’s almost a livestock specialty than it is a trainer specialty. With any general livestock, they go through so many changes when they’re growing — growth spurts and whatever. You have to really know what that looks like and have some understanding of that for sure.”