Havaila wins Gold Cup as champions crowned at Sandown

TL;DR

Havaila won the Bet365 Gold Cup at Sandown, marking his third consecutive victory. Sean Bowen was named champion jockey, while Dan Skelton surpassed £5m in prize money despite a tragic incident involving his horse Thistle Ask.

Key points

Havaila won the Bet365 Gold Cup.
Sean Bowen was crowned champion jockey.
Dan Skelton broke through the £5m barrier in prize money.
Havaila was a 5-1 chance for the race.
Thistle Ask was put down after a heavy fall.

Mentioned in this story

Dan SkeltonSandown

HavailaThistle AskOur PowerRoad to Home

Havaila wins at Sandown in the Bet365 Gold Cup

Havaila claimed a third consecutive win after victories at Newbury and Plumpton in his two previous outings [Getty Images]

Havaila won the Bet365 Gold Cup in the jump finale at Sandown, where Sean Bowen was crowned champion jockey and champion trainer Dan Skelton broke through the £5m barrier in prize money.

Havaila, ridden by Caoilin Quinn and trained by Gary Moore, was a 5-1 chance for the handicap chase and won a three-way sprint to the finish, beating Our Power (14-1) into second place by a short head, with 4-1 favourite Road to Home in third.

It was a bittersweet day for Skelton, who had two winners at a sun-kissed Sandown but his horse Thistle Ask had to be put down following a heavy fall in the Celebration Chase.

Nicky Henderson chose to withdraw the hugely popular Jonbon from the Celebration Chase, which was won by 12-year-old 11-1 chance Edwardstone, with the trainer saying: "You can't be risking him, it's quick."

Eighteen horses were withdrawn from the eight races after the going was confirmed as 'good, but good-to-firm in places'. That was considered to be too firm for a number of horses.

Montregard, owned by JP McManus and trained by Tom Lacey, was taken out of the Gold Cup, in which he was expected to go off as favourite.

Sir AP McCoy, a 20-time champion jockey, was heavily critical of the going, highlighting the number of withdrawals and saying the Sandown finale should never be held on a course that is firmer than good.

Andrew Cooper, Sandown's clerk of the course, agreed that the conditions should ideally be either good or even good-to-soft, but added that while the course had a good watering system there had not been "a millimetre of rain in April".

"It's not a good look for people wanting to watch good horse racing at the end of the season," said McCoy on ITV Sport, before accepting the clerk of the course had a "thankless task".

"I don't know what you can do, maybe Sandown is not the right place to have the end of the jump season, if that is the case, but I just don't think it is a good look to have that many non-runners on a day like today."