Flat racing is one of the few top sports where some of its biggest stars, the jockeys, can compete into their 50s.

Some face a continuous battle to keep their weight down and must be up at dawn most days to ride out.

Fitness experts say despite their regimes, riders can go on longer than other sportsmen, for example footballers, as they need strength more than stamina.

And Flat jockeys do not have the additional stress of their jump colleagues, who must get their mount over a fence, and have on average one in 10 or 12 rides that end in a fall.

In the Derby, body strength, experience and speed of thought are as vital as general fitness.

BBC Sport Online looks at some of the stars, past and present, who have carried on winning down the decades.

Sir Gordon Richards

Lester Piggott

Rode his first winner at the age of 12, and was still gracing the winner's enclosure nearly 50 years later.

In 1985, he first announced his retirement from a career which brought a record nine Epsom Derby victories.

But two years later, he was found guilty of a £3.25m tax fraud, imprisoned and stripped of his OBE.

Following his release, he returned to the saddle in 1990 and scored a fairytale triumph on Royal Academy in the Breeders' Cup Mile in America.

Aged 56, he claimed the 2,000 Guineas in 1992 on Rodrigo de Triano - his 30th British Classic win.

Piggott finally retired in 1995, although he took part in a special race at the Melbourne Cup meeting last year.

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Willie Carson

Pat Eddery

Still going strong at 50, and has threatened to challenge for a record 12th champion jockey title in recent seasons.

Eddery could do without the constant dieting which allows him to ride at a stone below his natural weight of 9st 4lb.

But the three-time Derby winner is still in love with racing.

He has ridden more than 100 winners in 28 of the last 29 seasons.

And he is looking to beat the total of 4,493 career wins secured by Lester Piggott, who was also an 11-time champion.

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George Duffield

At 55, the oldest professional jockey currently riding in the UK.

He had his first winner at Yarmouth 35 years ago, and has enjoyed many successes with trainer Sir Mark Prescott.

The pair went into the Guinness Book of Records in 1980 thanks to the horse Spindrifter on whom George won 11 successive races, and 13 times in all.

Duffield took the Oaks at Epsom in 1992 on User Friendly.

And he showed age had not dimmed his determination when securing a hard-fought win with Giant's Causeway in the 2000 Coral-Eclipse Stakes at Sandown.

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