'If a horse hasn't got the looks then its pedigree isn't worth considering' Martin Stevens talks to Noel McDonnell, who struck gold with his first pinhook last year and tries to repeat the dose this week.

Byline: Martin Stevens 

NOEL McDONNELL is one of very few pinhookers - possibly the only one - who boasts a 100 per cent strike-rate with purchases who have returned a profit when resold and gone on to win at Group level.

It helps, of course, that McDonnell has pinhooked only one horse, but the fact that it is Dick Turpin, who has emerged as one of this year's best juveniles, combined with his level-headed approach to his ventures in the sales ring, indicates this is a man likely to go far in the pinhooking world.

After working at Tom Brendan's Hilltown Stud in Clonsilla, County Dublin, as a teenager, and then in the construction industry on both sides of the Irish Sea, McDonnell graduated from the National Stud diploma course and spent four years working at Hamdan Al Maktoum's Derrinstown Stud in Maynooth, County Kildare.

Then, in 2007, he, his brother Trevor, and friends Kieran Heneghan and Marty Parsons, decided to club together, putting in "EUR4,000 or EUR5,000 each", to buy a foal at the Goffs November sale with the aim of reselling it as a yearling for a profit.

McDonnell says: "My friend Alan Flynn, who worked with me at Derrinstown, and I went to Goffs with a budget of between EUR15,000 to EUR20,000. We must have looked at about 80 foals selling on the first day, but Dick Turpin was by far the nicest we saw.

"For a late April foal he looked very mature, and he ticked all the boxes - good bone, good balance, good conformation and a good walker. We expected him to make around EUR14,000 or EUR15,000, so we were happy enough to get him for EUR12,000."

The story also serves as a lesson for sometimes forgiving a few shortcomings in pedigree.

McDonnell explains: "I saw [Dick Turpin's sire] Arakan on the racecourse, and although he looked a bit of a 'nearly horse', we saw several foals from his first crop that day and they were all good-bodied animals with very good bone.

"Dick Turpin's dam had produced two winners, and there was a bit of black type in the family - the decent sprinters Deep Finesse, Halmahera and Rising Shadow are close up.

"I'm quite big on pedigrees, and we certainly inspected foals from flashier families - but in the looks department we thought Dick Turpin was head and shoulders above the rest. After all, if a horse hasn't got the looks then its pedigree isn't worth considering."

After the sale McDonnell brought the precious investment back to his base at Mountpleasant House in County Mayo - "It's been said that nobody will ever buy a good horse west of Shannon, but we've proven that wrong" - to be prepared for his next date in a sales ring the following year.

But what can the pinhooker do in the intervening months to ensure that the foal blossoms into an attractive yearling who will be coveted by potential buyers? "Not much," McDonnell replies. "You rely on nature and your initial judgement; that you've found a foal with scope to progress.

"But you can help nature by giving the horse the right help - we feed copper supplements every couple of weeks, as well as various other vitamin and mineral supplements. It's an extra expense, but if you don't put the money in, you can't expect to get it back."

McDonnell sent up Dick Turpin to the 2008 Tattersalls Ireland September Yearling Sale with mixed feelings. On the one hand, he knew he had a good product; on the other, the timing of the sale could not have come at a worse time.

"Tom Rudd from Tattersalls Ireland had inspected the yearling and he seemed quite taken with him and immediately accepted him for the sale, so I was fairly hopeful," McDonnell says.

"But the storm clouds had settled over the economy when we arrived in Ratoath and there was plenty of doom and gloom - all conversation was about the recession.

"So we adjusted our expectations and would have been happy to get him sold and break even, so that we could at least invest again in November. As it turned out, we more than doubled our money [the colt made EUR26,000] and we were delighted.

"Plus it was a big bonus that he was bought by Peter Doyle, knowing that he would probably be going to a decent trainer."

McDonnell's optimism, it turned out, was well placed. Dick Turpin joined Richard Hannon's winner-factory at East Everleigh, and his record this year speaks for itself: four races, four wins, including the Group 2 Richmond Stakes and the lucrative Tattersalls Ireland sales race.

McDonnell reinvested at last year's Goffs foal sale, but, keeping his feet firmly on the ground and mindful of the prevailing economic conditions, he restricted himself to one purchase, who set him back only EUR4,500 more than Dick Turpin had. Consequently, this year's Mountpleasant House consignment to the Tattersalls Ireland September Sale has just one arrow in its quiver.

That yearling, a son of Paco Boy's sire Desert Style and closely related to a stakes-placed juvenile out of a winning dam from the family of Brigadier Gerard Stakes winner and Prix du Jockey-Club third Alriffa, is due to go through the ring as lot 488. Come November, McDonnell hopes to restock with at least two or three foals.

Dick Turpin has been a fine advertisement for fledgling consignor McDonnell and his parners' shrewd judgement, and laid the foundations of a solid reputation for Mountpleasant House.

CAPTION(S):

Lot 488, the only Mountpleasant House offering in the sale, is a well-bred son of Desert Style Noel McDonnell at his Mountpleasant House base in County Mayo, and (inset) Dick Turpin before his sale as a foal last year