When Anthea from York Racecourse rang me before Christmas to say I’d been selected to ride in the Best Western and Macmillan “Ride of their lives” Charity race at York I couldn’t have dreamt I would have the most perfect day or more rewarding journey.  I couldn’t have hoped to ride a yard favourite, Dubai Dynamo, who was too highly rated after winning three in 2015.  I couldn’t have imagined I’d raise over £35,000 for Macmillan Cancer Support.  I wouldn’t have believed how much I’d enjoy the whole experience and I definitely didn’t expect to win!

I have so many thank you’s so I’ll start from the beginning!  Firstly thanks to Froot Atkins who inspired me to apply for the race.  Coaching Froot for the race in 2014 was brilliant and her and husband, Micks, help and advice with the initial fundraising was great.

Thanks to the team at Macmillan Cancer Support, especially Nikki Denton, who was always on the end of the phone for fundraising advice and support.  Massive thanks to Tom O’Ryan at Jack Berry House for giving up his time to coach us all on a weekly basis.  They were fun evenings, made us realise just how fit we needed to be and gave the riders chance to get to know each other.  Thanks to Anthea and her team at York and Venita Wrigley who  were there to support and encourage us along the way and keep us all in order on raceday!

Huge thanks to Mum and Dad, Roger and Grandma who put a massive amount of time and work into helping me fundraise plus all the rest of my family and friends who all did their bit.  We had bun, sweets and cake sales, a fashion show, a quiz night, cakes and a collection at a point to point, a band bash, show jumping competitions, bucket collections, a yard and raceday, collection boxes in local businesses, a raffle at a syndicate morning and sponsorship of my riding gear on raceday.  Thanks to everyone who donated auction lots and to all the bidders – the online auction made an impressive £9705 and for a couple of weeks we were all addicted to checking what the latest bids were!

Thanks to everyone who visited my just giving page to donate, supported one of our many events, handed me money at the races or put into one of our many collections boxes.  Everyone who got their hand in their pocket helped me raise a monumentus amount of money for a brilliant charity.

Thanks to Tuffaboots, Hyphen Bloodstock, Greens Farm Supplies, Harrowells, Wm McIvor and yard sponsors Realistic Games for sponsorship of my riding wear and Wendy at White Rose Saddlery for sorting it all out at the last minute.

Thanks to the team at home on the yard.  It has been brilliant fun riding out with Jimmy, Tory and Ryan and I’ll be carrying that on!

Thanks to York Racecourse who, as always, did the job properly and looked after us and our guests really well.

Thanks to The Bottom Liners for letting me ride Dubai.  I honestly didn’t know what I’d be riding in the race until a couple of weeks before.  There was talk of Ellaal or Abushamah but as the time came nearer and Dubai’s rating fell – it was meant to be!

Thanks to Hilary at Miss Daisy’s Tearoom in Sutton Park for hosting our after party.  It’s fair to say that it did get quite rowdy later on and a great night was had by all (not such a great day Sunday however!)

Thanks to Best Western Hotels for sponsoring the race and all goodies including a two night stay in one of their hotels for each of the riders.

Finally thanks to Dubai Dynamo who was a real professional and gave me the “ride of my life”.

To see all the lovely pictures visit our Gallery Page.