Age will not weary them: how to profit from older horses

Implicit ageism is commonplace in sport – just ask distance runner Jo Pavey, 42, the oldest British track athlete who competed at the Rio Olympics.

Pavey is the oldest woman to win gold at the European championships, and after becoming European 10,000m champion two years ago at the age of 40 she has joked that she may well have been renamed Jo Pavey-Forty given how her name and advancing years are now always mentioned in the same breath.

She is an example of an athlete who has retained her ability beyond what is considered the optimum age for an elite runner.