Persimmon, a bay racehorse, in profile to the left, with Jack Watts up, wearing the Prince of Wales's colours, in a racecourse paddock, with crowds of racegoers behind the white fence to the rear.

Persimmon, out of Perdita II by St Simon, won the Derby, St. Leger and Jockey Club Stakes at Newmarket in 1896 for Edward VII when Prince of Wales. As a four year old, Persimmon went on to win the Eclipse and the Ascot Gold Cup in 1897 before retiring to stud at Sandringham. The painting was undertaken at the command of Edward VII in 1896, and Jones records that he 'made a number of sketches of horse and jockey, both at Newmarket and Epsom'; the last ones executed rapidly at the starting-post. When the picture was finished, the Prince was not only pleased but he said so in the gracious fashion of which he was a master' (Memoirs, p. 102). The artist found the horse 'a gentle and placid stallion' to deal with; 'great thoroughbreds are not easy of approach and not one in twenty has the gentle friendliness that distinguished King Edward's Derby winner' (Memoirs, p. 106). A few months later, Jones executed a bronze statue of Persimmon as a birthday gift for the Prince of Wales from the Princess of Wales (? possibly the bronze presented to the Jockey Club by Edward VIII on 21 October 1936). A later statuette of Persimmon by Jones (signed and dated 1904, RCIN 7969) remains in the Royal Collection.

Jones received a further royal commission to paint Persimmon with Watts up to present to the 10th Hussars in 1900. An earlier variant, signed twice and dated 1896, measuring 55 x 70 cm, but differing in the background detail and omitting the two horses in the far left, was with a private collector in 2011. A painting on panel of 'Persimmon' by Jones, showing the horse stabled, was at Sotheby's 4 March 1992 (81).