Sound judgement and ability to withstand knocks needed

The art of pinhooking sounds simple - buying a foal to sell as a yearling or a yearling to sell as a two-year-old and turning a profit on your purchase when it heads back through the ring.

But like so many roles in the bloodstock industry, pinhooking can be far more complicated and a lot more risky than it sounds. We've spoken to a pair of seasoned pinhookers to get an insider’s perspective.

The first thing you'll need is the capital to go to the sales and purchase the raw materials with. But the bloodstock market is notoriously fickle, so what looks a sound investment one sale can often be out of fashion by the time you come to resell.