THE WASTING OF JOCKEYS 63 



gave him an immense advantage over his most formidable 



rivals in the saddle; for while Frank Butler and Sam 



Chiffney were tearing their " too solid flesh" to pieces and 



enduring untold agonies in the process, little Nat, " the 



Pocket Hercules," was comparatively enjoying himself. 



Even in the very height of the racing season he always had 



his pint of beer at breakfast, and there was a comfortable 



look about him which would have led a casual observer to 



suppose that it cost him no trouble to get himself down to 



the lowest weight in a handicap. Fortunately for Nat, 



he was not naturally inclined to make flesh, and at 50 



his ordinary riding weight was only 11 lbs. more than 



at 29. There is a portrait of him by J. F. Herring, 



mounted on Voltigeur, sitting square and strong as was his 



wont, and the painter has cleverly conveyed a suggestion 



of the jockey's peculiar style of " hustling." There was 



nothing brilliant, however, in Flatman's horsemanship : his 



set-to was usually hurried and fussy ; he had neither the 



wonderful power of Bill Scott, the electric dash of Sam 



Chiffney, nor the elegance of Jem Robinson or Alfred Day 



(all of whom were his contemporaries), and yet at Newmarket, 



for many seasons in succession, he rode twice as often and 



was more than twice as successful as any of his rivals. At 



one time he was able to reckon his 250 mounts in a season 



— a prodigious record for those times. *' I shall die happy 



if I can win a hundred races in a season," he used often to 



say in his earlier days. He attained his ambition in 1848, 



by scoring 104. That was his high- water mark : 94 was the 



nearest approach he ever made to it. This looks, at first 



sight, but a poor record as compared with that of Fred 



Archer from 1881 to 1885, viz. 220, 210, 232, 241, and 246. 



But the number of races was much smaller in Nat's time, 



and his percentage of wins was perhaps greater than 



Archer's. Nat Flatman won his first Derby in 1844; but it 



was not a satisfactory victory, for his horse, Orlando, was 



second to Running Rein, and it was only through the latter 



being disqualified for fraudulent entry that Orlando was 



returned the winner. That year Nat made the largest sum 



he ever realised in one season — ^^5000. I think I could 



name more than one jockey of these later days who has 



