FRANCIS BUCKLE AND SOME OTHER FAMOUS RIDERS. ?8; 



O J 



with Buckle up, at J to 4. Robinson's orders had merely been to "go as fast and as 

 far as you can." So when the favourite was dead beat at half a mile, and Jem found 

 himself all alone in front, he went on and won, though Young Wizard ran him close 

 at the finish, and Azor never had the pluck to start again. It was only 4 to i 

 against Sir John Shelley's chestnut Cedric, by Phantom, in 1824, and after three 

 false starts he made the running, kept the lead, and came in first. On the Fridav 

 Jem was up again on Lord Jersey's Cobweb, by Phantom, an odds-on favourite, 

 who won by a length. Presumably, Jem was a favourite, too, in the last of the 

 three performances he had backed himself to win, for he was married within the 

 time, and no doubt Crutch Robinson's thousand came in very handy for the 

 furniture. 



It was no small feather in Buckle's cap that he was known to have given many 

 hints to Jem Robinson during the thirteen years that brilliant young jockey spent 

 in Robson's stables ; and many a match did master and pupil 

 fight out against each other on the turf. The struggle when 

 Buckle rode Mr. Udny's Abjer, and Jem was up on Lord 

 Exeter's Ardrossan, in 1821, was perhaps the most memorable 

 of all, and the punishment which the savage son of Vicissitude 

 then received he never forgot, even when Robinson came into 

 his box two years afterwards, for it was a case of Mu/ey Edris 

 and Fred Archer, only rather worse. Jem's matchless seat in 



Jem Robinson. 



the saddle will never be forgotten while men remember such 

 finishes as that of Tom Aldcroft on Lord of the Isles for the Two Thousand, or of Job 

 Marson when he split Cotherstone and Prizefighter in the St. Leger, and drove Nutwith 

 home first by a head. It was with Job, who was on Voltigeur, that Robinson ran 

 his memorable dead heat on Russborough for the St. Leger of 1850, swooping down 

 on the Derby winner in the last few strides in as fine an exemplification of his style as 

 he had given in all the sixty years of his life. His equable temper was another 

 valuable asset, and it was as much owing to this as anything that he was able to 

 outride the famous Bill Scott for the Derby of 1828 after the dead-heat between 

 Cadland and The Colonel, which is illustrated in the frontispiece of this volume. 

 It is sad to think that the rider of Azor, Cedric, Middle foil, Mameluke, Cad/and and 

 Bay Middle/on for the Derby ; of Matilda, Margrave and Russborough for the 

 St. Leger ; of Augusta and Cobweb for the Oaks, and of nine Two Thousand 

 winners, might have died in the workhouse and left little better for his widow had 



