Elnathan "Nat" Flatman, born Holton St. Mary, Suffolk, was the first Champion flat racing jockey of Great Britain. He began his thirty-four-year racing career as an apprentice jockey at age fifteen and by 1840 he was the dominant rider in British racing, winning the Champion Jockey title thirteen years in a row. During his career, Flatman won the patronage of many significant owners, including Lord George Bentinck, the Earl of Chesterfield, Admiral Rous, Lord Stradbroke and Lord Derby. For these owners, and others like them he won most of the important Thoroughbred horse races in England, including ten Classics, and some significant races in France. He continued to ride until the paddock accident that incapacitated him and ultimately led to his death at the age of 50.

The Derby Stakes, also known as the Derby or the Epsom Derby, is a Group 1 flat horse race in England open to three-year-old colts and fillies. It is run at Epsom Downs Racecourse in Surrey on the first Saturday of June each year, over a distance of one mile, four furlongs and 10 yards, or about 1½ miles. It was first run in 1780.