Edwardstone wins Celebration Chase as Thistle Ask suffers fatal fall

Thistle Ask’s bid to land Sandown’s feature ended in tragedy at the seventh fence, when the second favourite made a mistake, unseated Harry Skelton and suffered a fatal injury that stopped the Grade 1 bet365 Celebration Chase in its tracks. Sandown’s specialist veterinary team assessed the horse on course and determined that humane euthanasia was the best course of action for his welfare, turning a headline race into a day of grief for connections and a reminder of how quickly jump racing can change.

The incident did not stop there. As Thistle Ask came down, stablemate Mirabad also came unstuck while trying to avoid the fallen horse and unseated Tristan Durrell. The race carried on over 1m 7f 99y on good ground, good to firm in places, with six runners chasing a guaranteed £175,000 prize and the winner eventually clocking 3m 46.10s.

Edwardstone emerged from the fallout to win by a head from JPR One, giving Alan King’s 12-year-old veteran a fourth Grade 1 victory and a third Grade 1 success at Sandown Park. Tom Cannon delivered the decisive ride in the closing stages, keeping Edwardstone balanced enough to edge the finish after the race had already been shaped by the misfortune of the horse in front of him.

For King, it was a result loaded with emotion. Edwardstone has been part of the top tier of two-mile chasing for years, but this was a prize that carried an added weight, coming on a card defined as much by loss as by victory. Thistle Ask had arrived with a reputation as one of the season’s stars, and his fall cast a shadow over every subsequent stride.

The race closed out the 2025-26 jumps season, a day that also saw Dan Skelton crowned champion trainer for the first time. Skelton also became the first trainer to pass £5 million in prize-money in a season, a milestone that underlined the scale of his success even as Sandown’s final Grade 1 of the campaign was forever tied to the loss of Thistle Ask.