Alan King's Edwardstone won his fourth Grade 1 at the age of 12 after winning a bet365 Celebration Chase marred by the fatal injury to Thistle Ask at Sandown.
It had been a day of pure celebration for Dan Skelton before the race as he picked up two more prizes with Queen Maeve and Doyen Quest to sail past the £5million prize-money mark on the day he picked up the champion trainer trophy for the first time.
But as the front-running Thistle Ask made a bad mistake down the back straight he went wrong and brought down stablemate Mirabad who appeared unhurt after running loose with the remaining runners.
After being assessed by the vets, Thistle Ask was sadly euthanised following the incident.
It looked as though JPR One would be the one to pick up the pieces after the Pond Fence but Edwardstone (11/1) mounted his challenge between the final two fences and proved too strong up the hill.
JPR One fought back to his credit and there was only a neck in it at the line, but Edwardstone clung on to record his third Grade 1 success at this track.
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King said: “I think that is the most emotional winner of my career, I’m getting worse I think! That was very special. He has been in great form.
“That hill up our gallops I should think he has been up it several thousand times and he still attacks it every morning. That is why I want to keep going with him as he will tell me when he has had enough.
"It seems a strange thing to say, but by God Plumpton didn’t half sharpen him up. He has never been so quick in his life as he did around there. He has been a different horse since, and Tom said do I need to rev him up at the start and I said there is no need as that was done at Plumpton. He jumped away again. He was a bit long at one down the far side, but that is him. I said to Tom if you are a couple of lengths off them at the Pond Fence you have got a hell of a chance. It is great.
“Realistically I suppose you did think his Grade One days had gone, but with Jonbon coming out and the tragedy down the back, but you can only beat what you are up against. I feel very sorry for the other time.
“Charlie Mann kept congratulating me and I thought we haven’t got past the line yet, and it was close in the end, but what a wonderful day.
“That was a special day and that is why we do it. There are a lot of down days, and that is right up there with the best of them, and we haven’t had a Grade One winner in a long time so it is good. I’ve not gone yet!”
'Amazing performance'
Winning jockey Tom Cannon said: “It is a bit surreal to be honest. The race worked out perfectly to be honest. I’ve ridden him around here so many times and it is always a similar sort of pattern. Today he got to the Pond Fence and I gave him a squeeze and he finished off really nicely.
“He needs a really hard two miles on good ground, which he got today, as when they go slow in the mid part of the race he can get a bit outpaced, but he was brilliant.”
“By hook or by crook I think that race at Plumpton, where he got outpaced and stayed on, really stood him in good stead. It is probably what he needed, to go there in a lesser grade and have a really sharp race and it proved it today.
“I thought I had JPR One, but then I picked up well and winged the last. It felt like a very long way from the back of the last, but I’m glad that I held on anyway.
“I couldn’t hear the stands, but I could JPR One coming back at me so I was doing my best to keep him straight and true.
“It probably does top all the other wins as it is more of a story. A lot of people have followed him, and he is a course regular as well, so he had a big cheer coming in. To do it on the last day of the season is a remarkable performance. I think Alan King deserves a lot of credit as after Ascot I didn’t think they would get him back to win anything and he has come and won a Grade One so it is an amazing performance.”
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