Brilliant and brutal - Sandown's jumps finale delivers a day of joy and despair as Dan Skelton rides a rollercoaster of emotions

Before the champions were crowned, a champion said goodbye. It proved to be far from the only contrast on the British jumps season's final day.

The sun shone and the ground dried, although nobody complained about the state of Sandown's summer lawn, where Constitution Hill appeared not long before noon for a meet-and-greet with his people, of which many turned up to salute the erstwhile superstar hurdler. 

"His first two races were here so it's the perfect place for him to finish his final National Hunt season," said owner Michael Buckley, whose public favourite had been due to run at Newbury last week only to be ruled out due to unsuitably quick ground. That same reason led to a spate of defections at Sandown. Fortunately you do not always require big fields to draw a crowd. Sometimes the presence of a horse is more than enough.