Farmer Karl has painted a prize for the Ride of Their Lives jockey who raised the most money for Macmillan

Our own super-talented Farmer Karl, who last year made history by competing in the Macmillan Ride of Their Lives challenge for a second time, has painted a prize for the jockey who raised the most money for this year’s race.

At a recent race meeting at York Racecourse, Karl presented a painting of racehorse Hartswood to Lester Lloyd, who not only won this year’s charity race, but also raised £43,830 for Macmillan Cancer Support.

Keen artist Karl offered to paint a picture of the racehorse ridden by the jockey who raised the most money in this year’s race and was delighted to present it to Lester Lloyd. Ironically, Karl won the same prize last year when he and the Cedarbarn team raised £40,133 for the cancer charity.

“I’ve stayed in touch with Macmillan, the race organisers and the jockeys as I want to continue to give back to the charity that is close to my heart, and to help Macmillan raise money for a new ‘gold standard’ Cancer Support Centre at York Hospital,” said Karl.

“This year, I was proud to support the jockeys by organising the riders for jockey coach Russ Garrity to put through their paces on the Equicizer machines at Jack Berry House, and it was an honour to paint a picture of winning horse, Hartswood, for Lester.”

Lester was one of a team of 12 amateur jockeys who collectively raised over £152,000 by competing in the biggest race day charity fundraiser in the UK. The day itself raised over £458,000 for Macmillan.

The 54th Macmillan Charity Raceday took place at York Racecourse on Saturday, June 14. The day’s fundraising brought the cumulative total raised for the charity to over £11 million since the race started.

Applications are open for the 2026 Ernest Cooper Macmillan Ride of Their Lives. Visit  https://bit.ly/26ROTL for more information and an application form.