Two years after making his pinhooking debut with a $350,000 profit, Tim Askew is returning to the NZB Ready to Run Sale with his very first draft in his own name.
The young horseman will offer four colts at Karaka next month under the banner of Pamina Lodge.
Back in 2024, Askew went to the National Yearling Sale at Karaka at the beginning of the year and paid $70,000 for a Super Seth colt in the Waikato Stud draft. At the Ready to Run Sale later that year, the same colt was offered by KB Bloodstock and sold to Sutton Racing and Byron Rogers for $420,000.
The colt was named Sulek (NZ) and has been a winner and black-type placegetter for Melbourne trainer Dominic Sutton.
“That was quite an eye-watering result, especially since I hadn’t had my own horses going through the ring before,” Askew said.
“I’d previously worked for people that had done drafts, and I had learned a lot from them to go with my own showjumping background, but it was the first time I went out on my own and did my own horses."
While preparing his own Ready to Run Sale consignments might seem an obvious career progression after dipping his toes into the water so successfully, Askew says it was never quite that clear-cut.
“It probably wasn’t really a plan that I had in mind,” he said. “I’ve always kind of wanted to go into training, and I still do. But I never felt like I wanted to do that until I’d crossed every T and dotted every I.
“The decision to do my own draft this year comes from the simple fact that I have four very nice colts this year that I really believe in. It’s a nice, easy number to work with, and I decided to bite the bullet and have a go at doing it.
“It’s an exciting next step – and especially being able to say that I’ve purchased them, inspected them, broken them in and prepared them every step along the way through to the ring.
Two members of the Pamina Lodge draft this year were bought by Askew from Book 2 of Karaka 2026. He paid $40,000 for the Hello Youmzain colt that will go through the ring as Lot 410 in the Ready to Run Sale, while the Noverre colt catalogued as Lot 67 was a $100,000 purchase.
“My vet and I had identified the Hello Youmzain as a $100,000 colt, so I was rapt to get him for $40,000,” Askew said. “He’s been awesome to work with and is a lovely colt.
“The Noverre goes back to the very good mare Fleur De Chine (NZ) (Centaine). It’s a good, old-fashioned Kiwi bloodline, being a Centaine mare, and it’s like a pot of gold in terms of all the stakes performers that have come out of the family.”
The other two members of the draft are colts by Embellish (Lot 183) and Armory (Lot 244).
Askew bought the Embellish colt for $17,000 from the National Online Yearling Sale on Gavelhouse Plus.
“I think Embellish is a bit under-rated at the moment,” Askew said. “He probably hasn’t quite had the topline mares to help him really put his foot forward, but he’s getting results. This colt is out of a mare who has been a very good sales mare in the past – everything out of her has sold well.
“Another of her progeny is Bella Waters (NZ), a mare by Sacred Falls who has a Group Two win to her name as well. So there’s a lot to like.”
The Armory colt was bred by Askew, who bought the dam Empress Elect (NZ) (Holy Roman Emperor) for $2,800 on Gavelhouse.com.
While the first Ready to Run Sale preparation is always a learning curve for any young consignor, Askew has been delighted with how things have gone.
“I’ve got Lynsey Satherley coming to help me give them a final little run along, so that’ll put the finishing touches on them,” he said.
“They’re all sound and have had no issues. As much as possible with anything horse-related, it’s all gone really smoothly.”
View Pamina Lodge's draft online here.
The 2026 edition of the Ready to Run Sale will take place at the Karaka Sales Centre from 11am (NZT) on 18 & 19 November, with Breeze Ups to be held across two consecutive days on one turf track at Te Rapa Racecourse on 12 & 13 October from 9.30am.
