Your ultimate guide as the curtain falls on a fantastic jumps season at Sandown

Don't let's ask for the moon at Sandown on Saturday; we have the stars – and plenty of them, too.

Rather than accentuating the positive at the end of an affair with a married man in the 1942 drama Now, Voyager, Bette Davis's character might have been looking at the last meeting of the jumps season and counting her blessings.

The idea of a last-day clash between the two best horses in Britain, akin to Manchester City playing Liverpool in a Premier League decider on the final afternoon, was always a notion more for those of a romantic bent than those conscious of how these things tend to pan out.

But we still have Altior in the aptly named bet365 Celebration Chase and Nicky Henderson's magnificent star is certainly a horse to celebrate.

Full racecards and betting for Sandown on Saturday

The outstanding two-mile chaser of his generation comes here unbeaten over jumps and fresh from a second straight Champion Chase triumph at Cheltenham.

Watching him attempt to pass Big Buck's record with a 19th straight win is plenty to look forward to, even without Cyrname – now rated 1lb higher by the Racing Post and 3lb by the BHA – who was not declared due to unsuitably quick ground but will still be at Sandown to parade.

Altior is not the only potential history-maker on the card as Step Back bids for a first repeat victory in the bet365 Gold Cup since Topsham Bay was awarded a second win in 1993. The only horse to land back-to-back runnings without the help of the stewards is Larbawn, exactly 50 years ago.

But no winner would be more fitting than Present Man, providing one last hurrah in a memorable season for breakthrough jockey Bryony Frost, who returns from injury on the day she is crowned champion conditional and Present Man's trainer Paul Nicholls receives an 11th trainers' title.

Frost will be particularly delighted to be back in time to partner Black Corton in the bet365 Oaksey Chase as she has ridden the eight-year-old in his last 15 races.

Knockout blow for Altior?

Key question of the day is whether there is a Knockara Beau in the field for the bet365 Celebration Chase at Sandown.

George Charlton's redoubtable veteran sprang a 66-1 shock in the Cleeve Hurdle at Cheltenham in 2014, when 6-5 favourite Big Buck's was bidding for a 19th win in a row.

When Knockara Beau beat Big Buck's

Altior will be at considerably shorter odds as he bids to succeed where that peerless staying hurdler failed, in a race he won by three and a quarter lengths at 2-11 last year.

Nevertheless, no horse is unbeatable and had you stopped last month's Champion Chase at the point where the title-holder had been headed by Sceau Royal at the final fence you might have thought that winning run was about to come to end.

As it was, Altior rallied in trademark style and won by a length and three-quarters from Politologue, with Sceau Royal the same distance further back in third.

That gives Sceau Royal three and a half lengths in total to make up on a quickish surface that will play to his strengths. Could Alan King be the new George Charlton?

Step Back in time in the bet365 Gold Cup

It's not only the parade of past and present champions that will stir the memories at Sandown.

There's a certain sense of deja vu in the feature bet365 Gold Cup itself with last year's winner Step Back and The Young Master, who came out on top in 2016, battling for favouritism when declarations were made.

That is not a fight their connections would necessarily want to win as no outright market leader has landed this race since Mr Frisk fully 29 years ago.

There have been winners at 14-1, 20-1 and 40-1 in the last nine years alone and it is no surprise a bookmaker now backs a race that was sponsored by Whitbread for its first 44 years.

Best of present and the past

Most racehorse parades feature stars of yesteryear, but things are a little different at the finale meeting at Sandown, as several current – or in a couple of cases very recent – big names will be at the track.

Clan Des Obeaux, Coneygree, Cyrname, Frodon, Kalashnikov, La Bague Au Roi, Paisley Park, Pentland Hills and The New One are all parading at 12.40pm, before presentations to the two-legged champions of the sport at 1pm.

Paul Nicholls will collect the trainers' title for the 11th time and said: "It will be nice to get the trophy back [from Nicky Henderson]. It's a big day for the whole team so we're all really looking forward to it.

"It's good to have Bryony back after a month off, and it won't have done her any harm. She's chomping at the bit to get going again so it's great she has two rides that she gets on very well with."

He added: "There was no question about the decision over Cyrname with the ground as fast as it is. He wants plenty of cut and I said all along I wasn't going to risk him.

"He's been ready to run but I just couldn't run him on that ground. We're going to parade him instead."

Step back's trainer Mark Bradstock hopes to get his hands on the bet365 Gold Cup once againCredit: Edward Whitaker

One Eq of a chance at Leicester

Before Laurens stretches her legs for practice, fellow Group 1 winner Eqtidaar does so for prize-money in the biggest race of the season at Leicester.

Eqtidaar looked a smart prospect when getting the better of Sands Of Mali in the Commonwealth Cup at Royal Ascot last year and he has no penalty for that success in the Listed EBF Stallions King Richard III Stakes.

Trainer Sir Michael Stoute has no peer in the way he can patiently nurse an older horse back to peak form and it could take something smart to stop his four-year-old starting the season with a win.

Pipers is certainly one to Note

You need to be pretty special to have a race named in your honour when you're still around to run in it and Pipers Note is certainly that.

He is the nearest thing to Frankel among the cognoscenti at Ripon, a specialists' track the undulations of which can catch out the unwary and the unbalanced.

Trained by two Yorkshire stalwarts in Richard Whitaker and then Ruth Carr, the nine-year-old has won no fewer than eight times here. And one of his second places came in the Great St Wilfrid Handicap, the track's biggest race of the year.

There was nothing in his recent near-miss at Pontefract to suggest he is anything other than cherry ripe for the first running of the Celebrating Pipers Note Handicap – a rather catchier title than the Visit attheraces.com/punchestown Handicap, which is what it was when he won it in 2015.

"He's a great horse to train, he's very straightforward and he showed with his run at Pontefract that he retains all of his enthusiasm," said Carr.

"He absolutely loves Ripon and it's great to have a race named after him. He goes there in great form and with a good chance, but it's a very competitive race and there are plenty who will fancy their chances."

Ruth Carr is aiming to be in the Ripon winner's enclosure with Pipers Note yet againCredit: Andrew Dietz

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