The Sale runs for two days starting this Wednesday and Colin Branthwaite has been conducting inspections with a spring in his step after a Toronado (Ire) colt purchased for $10,000 at the Inglis Great Southern Sale last year was sold to Hawkes Racing for $180,000 at Sunday's Scone Sale.
Branthwaite told TDN AusNZ that what had been a skinny, immature December foal in Melbourne in June last year had grown into a colt that caught the eye of everyone who inspected him at the Riverside Stables over the past week.
"We don't get too far ahead of ourselves, generally, but I said to my staff and my wife when the inspections were happening that this colt would top the sale. I'm a bit of a confident sort of a bloke," Branthwaite said.
"I thought he would bring $60,000 easy, and I wouldn’t have been surprised if he brought $100,000. I put him on the market at $40,000 because of what we paid for him. The rest is history."
"We don't get too far ahead of ourselves, generally, but I said to my staff and my wife when the inspections were happening that this colt would top the sale." - Colin Branthwaite
While the sale delays of the past few months have not suited most vendors, the extra time this colt had to develop between April, when he was due to be sold, and now, proved crucial.
"He was my main horse to take to the Melbourne Gold Sale, because he was Super Vobis. Then when everything started to change, and they put that Scone Sale on, the Inglis boys said get him up here, he'll be a standout," he said.
Meagan and Colin Branthwaite
"As it evolved, he was the only Toronado in the Scone or Easter 2 Sale. Anyone that wanted a Toronado looked at him, and he just made his own way. The people that were bidding on him loved him and wanted him.
"I'm sure that had we had have had to sell this horse before coronavirus came along, he wouldn't have been half the horse he was. The virus made him really.
"He had an extra seven weeks in the paddock and another 10 weeks prep and that extra few months has just made him. Otherwise, he wouldn't have been anywhere near the horse he was."
Spotting potential
Branthwaite went to the Great Southern Sale last year very keen to purchase the progeny of Toronado, who was a stallion he thought would only grow in stature in the following 12 months.
He was beaten to the punch on a couple of horses by the Swettenham Stud sire priced in the $50,000 range before deciding to chance his hand with the immature son of Settecento (Nadeem), the half-sister to Listed winner and Group 1-placegetter Citirecruit (Citidancer {Ire}) from the family of champion filly Savana City (New Regent {Can}).
"All I focussed on was the length of his legs. I could see how much he was going to grow, even though I was presented with a very immature, light boned horse. He had leg, and I bought him because of that," he said.
The Toronado (Ire) x Settecento colt as a weanling
"A few of my trainers who I spell horses for had Toronados and they made it quite clear to me that they really liked them. I looked at him as maybe another Dundeel. I went to $50,000 or $60,000 and missed out on a couple and this is the one I ended up with."
In a sales season which has presented its fair share of challenges, Jazcom has netted some terrific returns from its pinhooks. It sold colts by Rubick and Headwater, purchased for a total of $53,000, at the Inglis Classic Sale for a combined $220,000 and continued that run on Sunday.
"A few of my trainers who I spell horses for had Toronados and they made it quite clear to me that they really liked them. I looked at him as maybe another Dundeel." - Colin Branthwaite
"I had 12 horses here on Sunday which I spent a total of $129,000 on and of the 12, we sold eight and got $338,000 and took four back home. We were really happy," he said.
"We have a pretty big spelling farm and these babies just fit in with the rest of the business. We bring them through. We do all our own horses and we don’t do outside business."
The next generation of Jazcom pinhooks
The Branthwaites have already been busy buying up weanlings for the 2021 yearling sales season through the Inglis Digital Sales, spending $82,000 across seven purchases in the past three months for foals by Dissident (2), Flying Artie, Sebring, Smart Missile, Astern and Star Witness.
Colin is also looking to add an unspecified number of foals from this week's Australian Weanling Sale.
"We don’t go for the so-called good ones because there is not enough margin in it for us. We use our judgement, myself and Meagan, and we work together. We both need to agree on a horse," he said.
"I'm a firm believer that there is going to be a lot more of those nice horses available this year. The top ones always make their money, but there is going to be a lot more in the bottom 50 per cent bracket where the vendors will be looking to sell.
The Branthwaites will be looking to pinhook a number of foals from this week's Inglis Australian Weanling Sale
"Everybody is looking for a bit of cash with how hard it has been to sell a horse and there is going to be more there for us. It doesn't look like the buyers are going to be there in that middle to low market."
But while results like the one on Sunday make pinhooking look an easy game, Branthwaite is very much aware that is not the case. However, he backs his judgement to get the right horses again.
"You just have to find them. We look at the athlete before we look at the legs. The horse needs to be able to run. A horse might be the pinpoint-correct horse with legs that are straight as a gun barrel, but if it doesn't look like an athlete, it won't run," he said.
