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Pinhooking: Buying For Resale

'Pinhooking' is the practice of buying a horse with the specific intention of re-selling it for a profit. The two most common pinhooking ventures are weanling to yearling partnerships and yearling to two-year-old partnerships. The motive for the participants of most pinhooking partnerships is the predictability of fixed costs and the expectation for a reasonable rate of return on investment.

"Pinhooking"-an old southern term used for the short term buying and selling of livestock.

As a young boy I used to ride to the stockyards with my father and grandfathers with cows and calves that we had raised on the family farm. When our truck pulled in "pinhookers" would actually stand on the bumper or sideboard of our trucks and look at our stock. If they were interested they would make a cash offer on the spot and the stock would become their property and go through the sale as such. Pigs, cattle and horses were all sold in this manner through regional stockyards and many traders became known as "pinhookers".

In the thoroughbred markets the turnaround is not quite as fast and we are preparing them for a future sale that is usually six or more months down the road which creates more risk. However the term "pinhooking" has survived the ages and we will embrace the concept as long as we can create reasonable profit returns. -Mike Akers

Annually we provide our client base with two opportunities to participate with us in pinhooking ventures. The first one is a "yearling to two year-old" venture in conjunction with Wavertree Stable in Ocala. Many of you participated last year when we netted a little over 23% on our investment. Dapple Weanlings, LLC is a repeat resale program which purchases weanlings from the fall breeding auctions for the purpose of resale into the yearling auction venues.

Pinhooking with Dapple

1. affordable ownership and excellent diversification for risk sharing
2. built in expense allowances to avoid cash calls during the partnerships existence
3. quarterly financial reporting and annual K-1 preparation at no additional expense to investors
4. ongoing and direct access to boarding farms, broodmares and foals
5. Dapple Bloodstock principals participate in all partnerships
6. nomanagement fees or commissions