Newbury Racecourse hosted a record number of guests for a fundraising lunch on Friday 22 March, organised after Cheltenham Festival winning jockey Steve Jobar was tragically diagnosed with MND in April 2022.

 

The fundraising lunch for 450 guests featured a live auction led by Steve’s weighing room colleague John Francome and trainer Richard Phillips whilst Mike Cattermole hosted the day.

 

Jobar rode Heighlin to victory in the 1980 Triumph Hurdle for trainer David Elsworth and it was an oil painting by acclaimed artist Peter Curling of Heighlin and Jobar that was the top auction lot of the day. The painting which was purchased by Elsworth fetched £7,000 in the auction.

 

Steve and his wife Dottie presented the trophies for the race named after him, the Steve Jobar MND Handicap Hurdle, which was won by Zain Nights for trainer Lucy Wadham and jockey Tom Cannon.

 

The support of so many family, friends and wider racing community meant the world to Steve who posted on twitter to say –

“What an extraordinary day yesterday turned out to be. Both positive, generous and fun. If you could bottle the feelings coming from all in the room I think we would have a cure tomorrow. I may not be functioning right but it was still one of the best days of my life. Thank you.”

 

The lunch is delighted to be able to distribute close to £175,000 to the MND Association with half of the funds going towards research into finding a cure for MND and the remaining half going to the Reading and West Berkshire brand of the MND Association who have been invaluable support to Steve and his wife Dottie. Steve’s JustGiving page is still open for donations:

https://www.justgiving.com/page/stevejobarmnd