'One decision saved our bacon' - pinhooker going from strength to strength

The fraught pursuit of pinhooking foals provides very little time to bask in the glow of a job well done.

At the high end, purchases will be offered for return on investment at events such as the early books of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sales. Just over a month later, the search for the next generation begins by scouring the series of winter foal auctions in Britain and Ireland and ploughing returns back in.

With their latest batch of talent currently being prepared for next month’s D-day, the Lowry family cannot allow themselves any self-satisfied reflection even if, as a business that has embraced reselling of cherry-picked Flat prospects for only the last three years, the initial signs have been promising.

Jimmy Lowry, patriarch of Oneliner Stables near Thurles in County Tipperary, has been involved in the bloodstock scene for more than 40 years, managing Moygaddy Stud in Maynooth when the champion sprinter Habibti was foaled and raised, followed by two decades in a managerial role at Athassel House Stud.

Oneliner has been feeling its way in the National Hunt market, latterly consigning useful stores such as dual Grade 1 novice hurdler Oscars Well and Getaway Trump, the smart hurdler-turned-chaser for Paul Nicholls.

With the encouragement of his son, Ger, who returned to the fold and has a deep interest in pedigrees and conformation, daughter Michelle and Ger's wife Leah, the decision was made to diversify into the top tier of the Flat.

They took the decision to pick up a Sea The Stars colt for 330,000gns from a fine old Aga Khan family at the December Foal Sale and returned to Newmarket for Book 1 in 2019, managing to recoup 725,000gns when he was bought by Godolphin. Neptune Seas, as he is now known, was off the mark at Nottingham recently and ought to make a useful older middle-distance performer for Charlie Appleby.

Godolphin purchase Neptune Seas was Oneliner's first serious introduction to Book 1Credit: Laura Green

Ger Lowry, 37, explains that the strategy was simple: less is more.

"My father wasn’t getting any younger, it was a case of trying to have quality over quantity and enjoy it more," he says.

"When it came to potentially sell a Group 1 or a black-type horse on the Flat, we’d done it National Hunt-wise and we were confident in our ability and judgement, so it was a case of doing that on the Flat."