David Jennings relives the highs and surreal lows of the last jumps season

Fittingly, the first Grade 1 of the 2020-21 campaign was won by a horse called The Storyteller because what unfolded over the next six months was a series of compelling chapters that kept us on the edge of our seats. Indeed, there was no point in getting up off those seats as for most of the season nobody could go anywhere.

The Storyteller won the Ladbrokes Champion Chase at Down Royal, a race that was supposed to be about stablemates Presenting Percy and Delta Work but instead it was the Gordon Elliott third string who surged home under Keith Donoghue to see off Chris’s Dream by a neck.

It was the third of five winners on the day for Elliott. More about him later.