Jump racing resumes at one of its showpiece venues on Saturday, but, for Sandown Park, it is not the start but the end of the season that is causing anxiety. If the rebranding reformists follow their instincts, the coveted privilege of staging the finale fixture and awards ceremony in late April could be removed. It is a threat Sandown is determined to fight.

The remit of the Racing For Change committee is to make the sport more accessible and understandable. Hence, one of the proposals, due to be debated next month, is that the jumps campaign should close when its profile is highest, on Grand National day.

As a knee-jerk marketing tool, the idea has a certain merit. The National draws a crowd of 70,000 to Aintree and commands a worldwide TV audience running into tens of millions. What better platform, the argument runs, to showcase the human and equine stars of the jumping code?

A different view will be expressed by trainers and owners. Most will contend that good jump racing continues for another month after the National. But none would feel the change quite so personally as the management at Sandown.

This is not the first time their prized fixture has been jeopardised. Last year, Cheltenham indicated that it wished to upgrade its three-day April meeting. The power and influence of jumping headquarters is such that this was easily translated as a long-term bid to stage the finale on what many would consider a more appropriate stage, and with a far bigger crowd. It could yet happen.

Now, though, any change may be officially imposed. John Jarvis, chairman of the Esher course for the past four years, spoke with feeling on the issue yesterday. “The irony is that the finale, and all that comes with it, would never have happened without us. The whole idea was conceived here, we're very passionate about it and we've been extremely vocal in lobbying to keep it.”

In Jarvis's view, the notion of closing the season on National day is fundamentally flawed. “The talk is of Aintree but I believe the awards and championships element would get lost in all the publicity for the National. I just can't see it happening.” But he knows that not everyone will dismiss it so readily.

Sandown is an enigmatic racecourse, neither as commodious as it seems nor quite as popular with the public as it ought to be. A crowd of 15,000 here is regarded as a triumph. On a big day at Cheltenham, such an attendance would be deemed inadequate.

Its recent history, like that of Kempton Park, its neighbour and fellow Jockey Club outlet, is littered with management upheaval, but David Mackinnon's time as managing director has brought stability and progress.

The venue makes money on non-racing events - yesterday, it hosted a militant gathering of 1,500 airline cabin crew - and imaginative raceday themes are augmented by enterprising offers, including a new concession of free entry for accompanied under-18s, rather than the usual under-16s.

But the enduring attraction of Sandown lies in its terrain. The layout is theatrical and the steeplechase track, in particular, is a visual treat. As Nicky Henderson put it yesterday: “The excitement of Sandown is that the fences take some jumping. Watching two-mile chasers winging down the back is as good a spectacle as you can get.”

Its appeal to jumping fans is enhanced by a standard of facilities seldom found elsewhere and by a vibrant atmosphere that Kempton, for instance, approaches only once a year. Sandown, then, is an exemplary jumps course and should market itself as such. If it really wants to retain the jewel in its calendar, the April day that packs in crowds for parades and awards and fine racing, it should abandon the curious notion that a distinct jumping occasion is enhanced by mixing in Flat racing.

They were nudged in this direction yesterday by Paul Nicholls, the champion trainer. “That day is a celebration of the season,” he said. “I think maybe it should be all about jump racing with six great races to end the season.”

Sandown tends to take note of its most successful trainer. It should do so again, before it is too late. Mixed cards can be a novelty to some, a confusion to others. But we are talking here of a special day, a climax, a prize ceremony. Sandown must devote the day to jumping, or take the risk that somewhere else is given the task.

November injuries to Ruby Walsh have provided the bookmarks of Sam Thomas's career. One year, he won every big race for a month and became a celebrity, the nearest thing to a jump jockey pin-up; in the next, he was humiliated by a sequence of misfortunes, public criticism and a subsequent fall from grace at the champion yard of Paul Nicholls.

Thomas, then, will have had mixed feelings yesterday when a call from his agent informed him that Walsh was injured again and that Nicholls required him to ride in the feature race at Kempton Park. It was only his fourth ride for the trainer this season. And it ended in another fall.

No blame attached to the jockey for the exit of Pasco but that will not have prevented the raised eyebrows and ironic jibes of those who regard him as somehow ill-fated. This is a big season in his bid to prove them misguided.

Although Walsh is delaying his return from a bruised foot until Saturday, Thomas is not required by Nicholls today. Instead, his ride in the feature race at Exeter is Nacarat, the horse that just may restore him to the top table after a spell in the servant's quarters.

Bookmaker sponsorship dictates that we must rename the big race today. Officially, the Haldon Gold Cup has become the William Hill Gold Cup, which strips it of its regional identity. There are those in high places who would like to go further, moving it to a bigger track and a Saturday. Such talk should be resisted. Provincial tracks must retain and promote their key days. And if Hills cut this, too, from their shrinking sponsorship portfolio, it is to be hoped that a local backer will restore the title that everyone at Exeter will still use anyway.