For the second year in succession, the battle to be crowned UK Champion Jump trainer is set to go down to the final day of the season, bet365 Jump Finale at Sandown Park on Saturday 26th April.

Before racing today Dan Skelton holds a slender advantage over defending champion Willie Mullins of just under £25,000. There is £685,000 on offer in prize money on bet365 Jump Finale, at which Mullins has 21 declared runners compared to nine for the Skelton team.

Speaking on a Zoom call today hosted by Great British Racing, Skelton opined that whatever the final outcome on Saturday, he is full of pride for what he has achieved and certainly does not want any sympathy.

Dan Skelton said: “We’ve had a great year, it’s been unbelievable. We set out at the start of the year to win between 3.3 and 3.4 million pounds in prize money and we passed 3.3 million last night. We thought that would be enough to be champion trainer but it’s a different time we live in now with Willie and his strength in depth so it’s going to be a tough Saturday.

“Midway through the season someone asked me how I would feel if I wasn’t champion trainer having had the lead all season and I said it will feel very different to last season. If I get beat this year, I won’t feel disappointed. If I had assumed in the weeks before Cheltenham I was going to get beat then I would feel disappointed because we had such a lead but you can’t legislate for Willie taking £860,000 out of the Grand National. We were in the position that if he won it we would still be OK and even if he had first and second but we are now in this end of season struggle and massively odds on to get beat.

“It’s an unexpected situation but not one I am overly frustrated about because at the end of the day we made Willie raise his bar which was high already and made him do even better than last year, which is some statement.

“If we get beat, we just have to try again next year. We have a stronger team for next year so I am not frightened of the future. Concentrating on the here and now, we are going to give it our absolute best.

“I have absolutely loved going racing over the last few weeks, probably more than I ever have in my whole career. The crowds have been phenomenal – at Plumpton the other day they were cheering our horses going out on to the track. It’s something I’ve never experienced before and it is humbling.

Getting past the bouncer

“We have never been champion and have never been to that dance. The excitement that we could still do it and the tenacity everyone has shown is something I have taken a lot of heart from. We are trying to get through the door and on the dancefloor, maybe the bouncer won’t let us to the party on Saturday but we’ll try and do it!

“We have known since Aintree that Willie would go for the Scottish National and some midweeks before attacking Sandown with some vigour but I didn’t sit back after Aintree and think it was inevitable and subdue myself and the team – we came out and did everything we can. Our horses have been phenomenal – we’ve had 16 winners in the last 14 days and I’m so proud of everybody. I’ve learned a lot about myself and myself – we’ve shown we can get into a fight and won’t lie down.

“I don’t feel sorry for myself and if we get beat I don’t want any sympathy. We had an unbelievable year and by the end of Saturday we will hopefully have won almost £3.4 million in prize money and had around 180 winners.

“I don’t deserve any sympathy. I have run more horses than anybody and have great support. I want to beat this man on square terms and not say things like we needed a different set of circumstances.

“Maybe our time will come in the future and I am not ready to be champion trainer yet but I’ll never stop doing my best. The one thing I am most proud of is I said I am not going to run the wrong horses and I haven’t.

“If we get beat, we get beat with our chests out and our chins up. I am looking forward to Saturday because we are taking some good horses and have a load of people coming down to support us.”

Historic moment

Willie Mullins created history a year ago when becoming the first Irish-based trainer to lift the UK championship since the great Vincent O’Brien 70 years earlier.

Unlike last year, Mullins did not win either the Unibet Champion Hurdle or the Boodles Cheltenham Gold Cup this season but the successful defence of his title looked likely after he amazingly saddled five of the first seven horses home in the world’s richest Jump race – the £1-million Randox Grand National at Aintree on April 5th.

Mullins said today: “It’s tough for Dan because I think people were calling him the champion all year and he’s done everything right.

“We have come along late in the play but that is always what we do every year, we don’t start early as I find that is what works best for us.

“I wasn’t expecting five of the first seven in the Grand National – it was a bit of a surprise.

“One of the lorries that pulled out for Sandown this morning wouldn’t start so we had to get a new one at 5.30am! Fortunately, we found one quick enough.

All down to Sandown

“Dan is out in front and has the points on the board. You can think about the points you hope to get but as you see in the football Premiership every year having them on the board is worth anything. Dan has some nice chances over the next few days and it will come down to Sandown on Saturday.

“One of us will come away disappointed and one will come away with the cookie jar as I call it – we have kept all our sweets in the British trainers’ championship cup this year and anybody that came in was offered one. There might be one or two left in the bottom on Saturday.

“I think the title is still up for grabs – it’s never that simple.

“We had a great day last year on Jump Finale – Sandown really looked after us very well and we were totally amazed with the amount of support we got. I think people were delighted to see the good horses. It wasn’t the Irish v the British it was good horses taking each other on. It was a great day with a fantastic atmosphere and it has been fantastic all year. We are looking forward to it once again.”