The Perfect Pinhook

Let’s look at the horse with the fastest work on the first day of the under tack show and see what we can learn.

This is hip #107. The work was 20.3 for 2 furlongs.

I would guess the horse will sell for at least $250,000, but most likely $500,000 or more. The pinhooker paid $50,000 at the Keeneland yearling sale last September. The pinhooker is an entity called J.C.M. that bought 11 horses at the sale. JCM paid $500,000 for an Into Mischief filly, and an average of $200,000 for 9 others. JCM consigned the horse to the Eddie Woods training center which is maybe the largest operation in Ocala.

Go to the following link for OBS Sales and scroll down to hip #107:

https://www.obssales.com/aprpreview/2021/

There you can see a photo, walking video, a workout video, and by clicking on the hip # you will get the pedigree.

This is a beautiful horse. Every reader should take the time to look at these videos. This is what a fast horse looks like. In a TDN article Woods calls the horse “long” and a “big beautiful filly”.

The sire is Violence. In some ways Violence is the perfect “modern” sire. He is a son of Medaglia d’ Oro who won the Travers at 3, and the Don Handicap at 5, so the stamina credentials are there. But Violence’s mare brings Mr. Prospector and Storm Cat to the pedigree, so Violence is also precocious.

So far Violence’s two best offspring are No Parole and Volatile. Neither has been successful at two turns, but most don’t care. They want speed and precocity, almost at any cost. In many ways Violence is the exactly the perfect Cox/Crow sire.

A Brad Cox/Liz Crow sire is a miler with speed, that with good training can be stretched out to a classic distance. This refers to an a interview both did for Ten Strike. They both stated their biggest mistakes were choosing horses without enough early speed. If speed is what you want, Violence is one of your favorite sires.

Violence is also a mid-priced sire. He stands for $25,000, much less than his father who costs $150,000. There are many $10,000 sires to choose from, so the $25,000 fee is a nice mid-range price.

The mare, Royale Paradise, never raced. She was RNAed for $70,000 as a yearling after being bred by Stonestreet. RP was the daughter of Unbridled Song. RP’s mom was G2 winning daughter of Elusive Quality. She won $230,000 and was nice horse. She also produced two solid $150,000 winners. Her extended family was solid but not spectacular.

RP was born in 2011 and had her first foal was born in 2015. That horse (also a son of Violence named, Metric System) was sold for $90,000 at Keeneland, but ran 3 horrible races at Mahoning and Turf Paradise. The second foal (Bano Solo, a son of Goldencents) was better. He sold for $110,000 as a yearling, and then $400,000 as a 2 year old at the Ocala March sale. BS broke his maiden in impressive fashion at Churchill in June and then finished 4th in the Sanford Stakes opening weekend at Saratoga. Two years later he was running in $15,000 claimers at Lone Star. BS made $120,000 in his 17 race career.

It is not clear what happened to the 2017 and 2018 foals. The pedigree page says one was a winner, but Equibase does not have that record.

In many ways this is the perfect “empty mare”.

Royale Paradise was well bred, (Unbridled Song out of a G2 stakes winning mare), but she never raced. RP produced a fast and precocious runner that was 2nd choice in a Saratoga 2 year stakes race (the gold standard of many owners). None of RP’s first 5 babies was really successful, but several sold well, and one was really fast and precocious.

Hip #107 was a pinhooker’s dream. Not enough pedigree to get anyone excited at the yearling sale, but just enough hints to suggest that she might run fast in an April breeze show.

This is exactly the type of horse I do not want to buy, but someone will pay $500,000. She is impressive to look at, but my goal is to find a horse that will look like that 6 months later.