Champion Sean Bowen could have a title fight this time - and why the growing unacceptability of good to firm is understandable

Click here to add us to your Google preferred sources or find out more here

An explosive jockeys' championship could unfold

Lewis Porteous, Racing Post reporter at Sandown

Sir Anthony McCoy wasn't short of an opinion or two on the last day of the jumps season but it was when discussing Sean Bowen's chances of beating his record of 289 wins in a season that he made perhaps his most pertinent contribution. 

McCoy revealed that one of the most significant factors behind his setting of a catalogue of records in his riding days was facing the persistent challenge of Richard Johnson, and he felt Bowen would benefit from his own version of Johnson to propel him on in his quest for the most winners in a season next term.

Well, if Dan Skelton is serious about sending out more winners in a season than Martin Pipe, then Harry Skelton might be exactly the challenger McCoy was talking about.

Surely the Skelton brothers would love to both be champions in the same season and that could make for an explosive jockeys' championship next term. Let the race to 300 begin.

Sean Bowen receives his champion jockey trophy at SandownCredit: Edward Whitaker (racingpost.com/photos)

Acceptable ground standards have changed

Lee Mottershead, Racing Post reporter at Sandown

What was once acceptable is now considered beyond the pale. That applies to the severity of the fences in the Grand National and the use of the whip by jockeys but also in relation to what jumps participants consider to be acceptable ground.

A total of 15 horses were declared non-runners at Sandown on Saturday because the ground – officially described as good, good to firm in places – was deemed to be too fast.

Sandown on Saturday: officially good, good to firm in placesCredit: Edward Whitaker (racingpost.com/photos)

Rewind 50 years and Otter Way won the 1976 Whitbread Gold Cup on firm ground. The going description was the same when the mighty Mill House won the race in 1967, while Desert Orchid landed his 1988 Whitbread on good to firm ground. Even Arkle, the greatest jumps horse of all time, was allowed to run on fast ground, with his second Cheltenham Gold Cup in 1965 staged on firm going.

In this modern era, horses are conditioned at home on artificial surfaces and are therefore less tested on fast racing surfaces. Crucially, however, data now shows that the quicker the ground, the greater the chance of equine fatalities. As such, the growing unacceptability of good to firm is understandable.

Read these next:

'I don't think there's a place for good to firm on a Grade 1 jumps track' - Sir AP McCoy ignites row over Sandown ground 

'I think he could do it' - Sean Bowen has support of colleagues in hunt for McCoy's records, but what does Sir AP think? 

Paul Nicholls: 'Some fantastic lads have been through Ditcheat but I always thought Dan was going to be the one' 

Sign up to receive On The Nose, our essential daily newsletter, from the Racing Post. Your unmissable morning feed, direct to your email inbox every morning.