Nice Little Earners

By the end of last year, 1,012 pinhooked yearlings – 18 per cent of all yearlings – had sold in Europe. The average price paid for these yearlings was £68,733 and their average cost at the previous year’s foal sales amounted to £34,710, producing a gross profit margin of £34,023, or a mark-up of 98 per cent before other costs are considered. If we allow £10,000 for interim expenses, the 1,012 falls to 536 (53 per cent) profitable yearlings and if we levy £20,000 for interim costs, the number profitable declines to 388 (38 per cent).

The corresponding numbers this year, to the end of Goffs Autumn Yearling Sale, are 959 sold for an average of £74,373 that cost on average £42,469 as foals, producing a reduced mark-up of 75 per cent, while 564 (59 per cent) were profitable after £10k of other costs, and 404 (42 per cent) cleared their foal purchase price plus £20k, both metrics higher than last year’s 53 and 38 per cent respectively.

Although there are a few yearling sales to come, the above numbers paint a very clear picture of the market for the foal-to-yearling traders. While the initial cost rose by almost £10k per yearling, suggesting that traders were emboldened when replenishing their foal stock after a buoyant yearling market last year, they did get a higher return on their investment this year. And although the gross margin was slightly down – £35k to £32k – there have been more profitable yearlings this year.

This narrative supports the trading conditions at this year’s main yearling sales for all yearlings. Whereas Tattersalls October Books 1 and 2, where taken together, regressed, all of the other select auction made significant gains, so much so that the European combined average for the six select auctions – Tatts October 1 and 2, Arqana August, Goffs Orby, Doncaster Premier and Baden-Baden – rose from £124,225 in 2024 to £128,413 this year – a welcome 3.4 per cent increase.

There have been 64 sires with five or more pinhooked yearlings sold so far this year and, although the risks of paying hundreds of thousands for any foal are substantial, the rewards can justify the outlay. The stallion to be on this year was Darley’s Night of Thunder, provided you had a nice yearling. The champion sire-elect enjoyed a standout year siring 30 Stakes winners and 15 Group winners, including the Timeform 130-rated Ombudsman and 1,000 Guineas heroine Desert Flower, while his two-year-olds featured Group 1 Dewhurst scorer Gewan, Timeform’s top-rated European juvenile, plus fellow Group winners Bow Echo, Distant Storm and Hankelow. The son of Dubawi, who will stand for €200k next spring, had seven yearlings sourced at the foal sales, but two were bought back and one lost money, which just goes to show how precarious the pinhooking game can be. The five Night of Thunders that did sell produced the best average profit of all, clearing an average of almost £200k.

This Night of Thunder ex Wild Rye colt was purchased for 175,000gns by Ballyhimikin/McKeever Bloodstock at the 2024 Tattersalls December Foal Sale and subsequently sold for 1,000,000gns at this year’s October Yearling Sale.

Coolmore’s St Mark’s Basilica enjoyed a promising year with his first runners, featuring Group 1 Prix Marcel Boussac winner Diamond Necklace and Group 2 May Hill heroine Aylin, and he hit the jackpot with his colt out of the Sea the Stars mare Lifting Me Higher at Tatts October Book 1, which sold to Amo Racing for 800,000gns, having cost €120,000 at Goffs November last year. This colt played a big part in producing an average profit of £104k for his sire.

The only other sire to make a six-figure average profit with his pinhooked yearlings was the evergreen Nathaniel. All six pinhooked foals found new owners and five of them made money, including two that made excellent profits of £276k and £132k. His pinhook average was an excellent £153k, over ten times his fee of £15,000 and right up among the top commercial sires all standing for higher fees.

Among all sires with five or more pinhooked yearlings sold, only one scored a 100 per cent success rate when all six of his yearlings sourced at the foal sales made money for their vendors, even after taking account of £10k worth of extra costs. That sire is none other than Sea the Stars’s top-class stayer Stradivarius. In fact, The National Stud resident can also claim to have had the highest percentage of profitable yearlings overall when compared with his nomination price, with 75 per cent of his yearlings making money after we add £20k to his £10k fee.

The National Stud’s Stradivarius had the highest percentage of profitable yearlings overall when compared with his nomination priceThe National Stud’s Stradivarius had the highest percentage of profitable yearlings overall when compared with his nomination price

A close second in terms of profit makers was the latest first-season sensation Starman. This son of Dutch Art supplied five Stakes winners, four of them at Group level, among his large first set of first-season two-year-olds. It was a significant achievement in that, assessed against all first-season sires of Group winners this century, the Tally-Ho stallion’s tally is second to only the great Frankel, who sired six in his first year back in 2016. And he’s got real quality, too, with the Karl Burke-trained Group 1 Prix Morny heroine Venetian Sun topping his list of runners. All 21 of Starman’s pinhooked yearlings sold and 20 (95.2 per cent) of them made a profit.

Darley’s Palace Pier also made a promising start to his stallion career this term, siring the Group 2 Lowther winner and Group 1 Cheveley Park third Royal Fixation among three Group winners and four Stakes winners. Inexplicably though, the top-class son of Kingman has not been everyone’s idea of a commercial sire with an average/fee multiple of only 1.9 this year, following a 1.3 in his debut season, but his pinhooked yearlings were well chosen and ten (90.9 per cent) of the 11 sold made money.

Among those sires with 20 or more pinhooked yearlings, Havana Grey did particularly well to deliver an in-profit percentage of 78.1 for his 32, given this is his first crop of yearlings bred on the back of his outstanding first year with runners. Produced from a fee of £18,500, the Havana Grey-pinhooked yearlings averaged £156k, a level only surpassed by sires standing at much higher fees.

Coolmore’s Starspangledbanner delivered his best ever year as sire of two-year-olds, siring seven Stakes winners and three Group winners headed by Precise, winner of the Group 1 Moyglare Stakes and Group 1 Fillies’ Mile, plus Gstaad, who scored a well-deserved Group 1 success in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf, following three near misses at that level. His 27 pinhooked yearlings generated a £123k average price and 77.8 per cent showed a profit after adding £10k costs.

Gstaad, winner of the Gr.1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf, was one of two top level scorers in 2025 for his sire, Starspangledbanner

Among the first-season sires, and apart from Stradivarius’s 100 per cent profitability score, it was Coolmore’s Blackbeard who led the way with an average price of £151k, far higher than his overall average of £76k for 15 sold, which in itself was a good return of over three times his stud fee. With an average profit of £74k for his pinhooks, the son of No Nay Never was nearly £30k clear of Bayside Boy, Minzaal, Perfect Power and Persian Force, all of whom posted strong results.

SIRES WITH 5+ PINHOOKED YEARLINGS SOLD IN 2025 ARRANGED BY AVERAGE DIFFERENTIAL