Dan Skelton was crowned champion trainer for the first time on a day full of drama at the Bet365 jump finale at Sandown Park.

The day started with the welcome sight of former champion hurdler winner Constitution Hill paraded on a meet and greet on Sandown’s summer lawn.

Understandably this drew a large crowd who wanted to catch a glimpse of a true superstar. For those who missed out on the meet and great, there was still a chance to see the great horse who joined in a special parade of champions in the parade ring.

A packed card of eight races began with the now traditional sight of Skelton claiming another winner on his pursuit of breaking the magical £5 million in prize money during the season.

What was a surprise is that it was Queen Maeve who was victorious of the Skelton duo entered at 20-1 ahead of the more fancied Made U Blush.

It was apt that jockey Tristan Durrell rode the winner, just moments before picking up his award for the champion conditional jockey for the 2025-26 season.

With increasingly drying ground, some trainers including Skelton had to make the choice to pull out some of their horses because of the ground during the rest of the afternoon.

Chris Gordon capped off an outstanding season by landing the Class Two Bet365 novices championship final handicap hurdle over two miles.

The five-year-old carrying top weight of 12 stone was always travelling well under Sam Twiston-Davies to win by three and a quarter lengths.

It wasn’t too long before the Skeltons were celebrating after the £5 million pound barrier was broken after Doyen Quest under Harry Skelton powered home by six lengths with the Skelton aeroplane celebration in full flight past the winning post.

Hot favourite Jonbon was withdrawn because of the ground by Nicky Henderson which left just six runners to contest the Bet365 Championship Chase.

The race itself was marred by the fatal injury to Dan Skelton’s Thistle Ask who made a bad mistake at the water jump and unseated Harry Skelton and also bought down Skelton’s other runner Mirabad.

The race was eventually won by crowd favourite Edwardstone at the age of 12 who got up to win by a neck from JPR One.

Gary and Josh Moore ended the season on a high when Havila made it a hat-trick of wins after taking the main feature on the last day of the season, the Bet365 Gold Cup.

Under a patient ride from Caoilin Quinn, the seven-year-old backed up his impressive Sussex National win at Plumpton by getting up on the line in this marathon race by a short head.

Nicky Henderson saddled his final two runners of the season in the two miles five furlongs Class One hurdle race with the outcome a one-two for the Lambourn handler with Jingko Blue leading home Lucky Place.

By Peter Moore