Want to invest in a Ready to Run horse? We can show you how.
Earlier this year Kingmakers founder Leighton Howl co-selected and purchased at the Karaka Yearling Sales what he thought was the best Ace High colt ($135k) we had ever spotted. When I say ‘co-selected’ that includes our vet Murray Gilmore who has been my sales vet for over 15 years and now works closely with Kingmakers owners as well.
As founder of newly launched Kingmakers, I was super excited by the horse, keen to get people on board, but unfortunately as the year progressed not many others shared the same vision.
The recession had clearly arrived, money was tight, and the stallion Ace High was only doing ‘ok’ on the race track - resulting in not one single share being sold. Interestingly, over 2000 people (across AUS/NZ) had gone to our website, over 3 months and viewed his page for over 2 minutes and 32 seconds in duration.
It wasn’t until early May, feeling a touch in red, when Cameron Heron called me from Highline Thoroughbreds and said I need to come have a look at this colt. I got in the car, not knowing what to expect. When we took the cover off him in the paddock, I was a little shocked to discover what was in front of us - a beast, with refined head, balance across his top line, a super dark coat, 500kg natural muscle and what most would describe as equine perfection on four legs. Clearly he had turned into the stallion’s replica son.
Highline Thoroughbreds owner, Cameron Heron said it was a shame I had syndicated him as he would make a cracking Ready to Run colt, and would probably be a big ticket sale. My response was “I haven’t sold a share mate”…. so off to the November sale we went with pin-hook potenital.
At the sale our Sydney trainer Joe Pride inspected him and said little more than “you’ll do well out of him”. Underbidder Ciaron Maher was rumoured to have said he was the “one of the best Derby colts he had seen in many a year at Karaka” and vendors Kiltannon, who did a super job, broke their record of daily parades for a single horse with over 100 viewings on day one, as well as 15 X-rays hits and numerous full vet inspections.
With all the pre sale hype behind us, he entered the ring on day one as Lot 93, and didn’t take long to get going with the bidding almost opening at what we paid for him in January - $100k. The hammer dropped at a happy $380k to one of Hong Kong’s biggest horse owners Mr KM Yeung, which resulted in a $200k profit in only 8 months - beats Shareies!
If you’re interested in investing in a sale to sale horse, (aka pinhook) feel free to book a meeting and we can sit down and put a plan together for your budget for this year’s Karaka Yearling Sales in late January, or the Sydney Inglis Classic Sale in early February. It’s not an overly complicated process and there is a risk involved like all investments, but if it’s done right the margins are there to be realised.
