Dan Skelton became the first jumps trainer to break the £4 million barrier in prize-money for a season after Diamond Dealer under Tristan Durrell won at Kelso.

Skelton, who has suffered late heartbreak at the hands of Willie Mullins in the past two seasons, watched from the Newbury parade ring.

Afterwards he pointed to the psychological significance of reaching the prize-money landmark he privately set himself as the minimum requirement this season to withstand another Mullins surge.

“It’s never been done before, so of course it’s very significant,” said Skelton. “We set out at the start of the season, hoping we could try to do that because of recent events.

“Getting beat by Willie has made me look further to see what else we could do, and that was the number we probably needed to touch."

Following on from Joyeux Machin's success at Bangor earlier in the day, Diamond Dealer was winner number 168 for Skelton in Britain.

By Peter Moore