An enthralling end to the National Hunt jump season concluded on Saturday with the Bet365 Jump Finale day at Sandown Park.

It is the traditional finale to the long jump season with the awards ceremony before the start of racing before the race to become champion British jumps trainer is awarded.

On a glorious late April sunny Saturday afternoon in front of another sizeable crowd, the stage was set for the award of champion conditional jockey and champion jump jockey along with champion owner.

Freddie Gingell claimed the conditional jockey’s title after a successful season with 39 winners including his first taste of big race success after partnering Il Ridoto in the Paddy Power Gold Cup in November.

Sean Bowen was crowned champion jump jockey after riding 180 winners in the season. Bowen, who last season was in the running to be crowned champion jockey before suffering a bad fall which kept him out of action for a while, made up for last season’s heartache by finishing 38 clear of his nearest rival Harry Skelton.

The race to become champion trainer went to the final day of the season with Dan Skelton and last season’s winner Willie Mullins going toe-to-toe to see who would win the coveted award.

Heading into the final day, Skelton had an overall lead of £68,483. Despite trailing, Mullins had the best ammunition of the two by sending over no less than 21 runners on the day with Skelton running just nine horses.

Skelton’s lead was slowly beginning to be whittled down after the Irish maestro bagged the third race on the card through Gaelic Warrior in the Grade Two Bet365 Oaksey Chase.

Aside from Gaelic Warrior scoring, Mullins also saddled the second, fourth and sixth in the same race to nudge ahead at the top of the table.

That slender lead increased dramatically after Mullins produced an extraordinary training feat to saddle Il Etait Temps to victory after 359 days off the track.

The seven-year-old was sent off second-favourite behind the odds-on Nicky Henderson-trained Jonbon. An excellent turn of pace saw Il Etait Temps breeze past Jonbon in the straight to claim victory and ensure Mullins would retain his trophy.

With £175,000 on offer, the feature race of the day the Bet365 Gold Cup attracted 20 runners, with ten lined up out of the 20 runners representing the yard of Mullins.

However, it wasn’t to be an Irish success in the race with that honour going to the Olly Murphy-trained Resplendent Grey ridden by the newly-crowned champion jockey Sean Bowen.

But, you can’t keep Mullins down for long, with the Irish trainer saddling the second, third, fourth and fifth.

In other news, Newmarket trainer Dylan Cunha has split with stable jockey Rhys Clutterbuck because of geographical reasons.

Richard Kingscote is set to become the new rider of Docklands following the retirement of Hayley Turner this month.

Turner rode Harry Eustace’s stable star in ten of his 11 starts, including when winning the Britannia Stakes at Royal Ascot in 2003.

Jockey Nico de Boinville was hospitalised after a heavy fall at Plumpton at the beginning of the week. The top rider spent the night in hospital after being kicked in the fall. He has sustained broken ribs and neck injuries and will be on the sidelines for a short while.

By Peter Moore