Pinhooking Partnership Strikes for Midnight Lute Colt

Sitting in a long line along the back of the sales pavilion, a team of bidders kept the momentum going Jan. 9 and left the auction house $120,000 lighter, but with a promising Midnight Lute  colt in tow. The price was the highest paid for a short yearling during the third session of the Keeneland January Horses of All Ages Sale. 

"He was a leggy colt with a long neck, and a really good mover," said Brian Graves, who signed the ticket under his pinhooking team's Fish Bloodstock banner. "It was probably a little more than we would have liked to pay for a Midnight Lute, but the horse had a very good year this year, and he can get a good racehorse. I guess my argument is that when you lead a quality horse up by a stallion that's proven to get good racehorses, people will believe. We will probably bring him back here in September and see how we did. (The market) has been extremely tough." 

Bred in Kentucky by Taylor Brothers Properties, George E. Saufley, Pollock Farms, and Hugh Owen, the colt is out of the Storm Cat mare Stop the Lights. Consigned to the sale by Taylor Made Sales Agency as Hip 953, he is a half brother to grade 2-placed Lightscameraaction. The colt's second dam, Stop Traffic, is the dam of three stakes winners, including Whitney Invitational Handicap (G1) scorer Cross Traffic , the leading freshman sire of 2018. 

"He's just a big, leggy Midnight Lute that looks like he's going to grow into a big, scopey horse," said bloodstock agent Davant Latham, who worked in partnership with Graves and Phil Hager to purchase the bay colt.  

"I love the family," Latham continued. "I love seeing Cross Traffic underneath it. I know the family well, I foaled Cross Traffic's dam, and we have a nice Cross Traffic colt that we are pinhooking this year that we bought privately." 

Fish Bloodstock is a name used by Graves in several pinhooking partnerships with rotating partners.



"Fish is actually the name of Brian's dog," Latham said. "I've got a group, Phil Hager has a group, and then Brian probably has a group as well. So it was the three of us going thirds on that colt." 

The Keeneland September Yearling Sale will be the most likely target for Hip 953, but Latham said no future sale is off the table. 

"It's early to say," Latham said. "They can grow so much between now and May, and that's when we really have to make our decision, or start thinking hard about it. So we will see how they finish and how they look in May. 

"From my perspective, the best thing we can do is wait as long as possible to make that decision. We want our horse to be mature and in the best possible shape he can be for that sale. All sales are a possibility."

While Latham said they came to the sale with the specific intent of purchasing short yearlings, the strength of the market made finding—and buying—quality horses difficult. 

"From a short yearling perspective, I would say there is a little less general quality in this sale than last year," he said. "It varies every year according to how people did in September selling. Some people I know withdrew horses they had entered in November and in this sale because they did well selling in September, so they didn't need the cash flow. 

"Everything is a premium. Everything that's nice is really bringing a lot of money, and that's just part of the climate we're in right now."