The official end of the 2024-25 jump racing season was set up nicely to see who would be crowned champion British trainer with Willie Mullins and Dan Skelton going toe-to-toe to see who would come out on top at the Bet365 Jump Finale meeting at Sandown Park Racecourse.

Before the start of Saturday’s card, Skelton had a lead of almost £68,500. However, the main race of the day the Bet365 Gold Cup was worth not far off £100,000 to the winner.

Mullins, looking to defend his title won 12 months ago, was up for the challenge by sending 21 horses across the water with Skelton entering nine.

However, before the main course there was still time for Gary and Josh Moore to bag a double with the opening two races on the card.

Give It To Me Oj took the opener on the card by defying top weight of 12 stone. Under Caoilin Quinn, the four-year-old previously finished fourth in a Grade One at Aintree before landing the spoils at Huntingdon to hold on in the 2m Class Two Handicap Hurdle.

The experienced eight-year-old had to produce a career best to land the 2m 4f novices handicap hurdle off a mark of 144.

Mahons Glory, looking for a third consecutive win, set a strong pace, at one point being six lengths clear. Entering the straight the leader’s advantage was eventually swallowed up with Mark Of Gold pulling clear by three quarters of a length.

Mullins drew first blood in the battle of the two leading trainers after the impressive Gaelic Warrior backed up his Grade One Aintree victory with a comfortable five-length victory to lead home a Mullins one-two. The Irish trainer also had the fourth and the sixth in the race to trail Skelton by just a few thousand pounds.

The Class One Bet365 Celebration Chase saw the return of Jonbon, who earlier on in the day was named racehorse of the year.

The Nicky Henderson nine-year-old was odds on to complete yet another victory with the Mullins trained Il Etait Temps his likely challenger in the race.

Despite being off a remarkable 359 days, entering the straight the seven-year-old was travelling well under Danny Mullins. On the tail of Jonbon, the grey swept pass the Henderson favourite to score impressively by five-and-a-half lengths to give Mullins another big pot in the race to be crowned champion trainer.

By the time the main feature of the afternoon the Bet365 Gold Cup was run, Mullins had one hand on the trophy. Skelton had just one runner in the feature race Holy Joly Smoke with the Irish maestro saddling no less than ten of the 20 runners on show.

Although Mullins failed to produce the winner, he still finished up with the second, third, fourth and fifth, which was enough to guarantee another British champion trainer’s honour for Mullins with a winning lead of almost £200,000.

There was even time for yet another winner from Mullins who landed the finale on the card through Jump Allen to claim a treble for the newly crowned champion British trainer.

Ironically, Jump Allen finished ahead of the Dan Skelton trained Mostly Sunny to send the Irish trainer home with a deserved heavy night’s celebrating ahead of him and his family.

By Peter Moore