Congratulations to the winners of children’s drawing competition to celebrate the WellChild Cheltenham Gold Cup
Congratulations to Toby Weaver the overall winner of the children’s drawing competition to celebrate the WellChild Cheltenham Gold Cup! Other winners were second-placed Lauren Sabin (11) from Oxfordshire, third-placed Alyssa Haynes (16) from Bushey, then jointly in fourth place, Jacob O’ Reilly (5) from Sutton Coldfield and Callum Phillips (8) from Gloucester.
Toby, aged 5 from Bristol, painted a colourful picture of a jumping racehorse silhouette to celebrate the event after WellChild, the national charity for seriously ill children, in partnership with The Jockey Club, called on children across the UK to send in their brightest and most creative horse racing themed drawings to celebrate The Festival™ supporting WellChild and this year’s WellChild Cheltenham Gold Cup.
Toby and the other winners will have their pictures showcased at Cheltenham Racecourse and online throughout the Festival. They were chosen as winners by judges Ed Chamberlin of ITV Racing and racing legend AP McCoy, who are both WellChild Celebrity Ambassadors alongside WellChild Chief Executive Colin Dyer and Ian Renton, the Jockey Club’s Regional Managing Director.
WellChild ambassador and ITV Racing’s Lead Presenter Ed Chamberlin said of the winning picture: “It was great fun to be among the judges in this competition and we are delighted to have chosen a deserving winner whose colourful picture really captures the excitement of the Festival.
“Celebrating this year’s partnership between The Festival and WellChild through children’s art is a fantastic initiative and sums up what this partnership is all about.”
Toby was born with a genetic mutation which means he has a tracheostomy to help with breathing and is fed through a tube. He also uses a wheelchair and is visually impaired. Toby loves using his fingers to paint with his mum and enjoys going out for walks to say hello to the horses in nearby fields. His mother Nerys Daniels, who used to live near Cheltenham, and Toby’s grandparents are all keen racing enthusiasts.
Toby and I want to say thank you to the Jockey Club and everyone involved with The Festival at Cheltenham for choosing to support WellChild who help families like ours. It’s been great to connect with families going through similar experiences to ours through the WellChild Family Tree, particularly during the pandemic when we’ve all felt even more isolated than normal.”
Other winning entries also demonstrated imagination and creativity, from using the silk colours of previous Gold Cup winners to detailed illustrations of racehorses on the course. The winning young people also showed tremendous enthusiasm for the sport. Many were keen riders, regular visitors to Cheltenham Racecourse and some were even talented tipsters.
This year, Jump Racing’s flagship event, The Festival at Cheltenham Racecourse, and the sport’s most prestigious race, the Cheltenham Gold Cup, are supporting Cheltenham based WellChild, one of the UK’s leading charities helping seriously ill children and their families.
The children’s art competition celebrates the partnership and the winning artists will have their artwork showcased on the course and across coverage of the four days of this year’s Festival.
