Best Mate, triple Cheltenham Gold Cup winner and one of the most popular horses in racing since the days of Desert Orchid, collapsed and died at Exeter yesterday. Making his long-awaited reappearance in the William Hill Haldon Gold Cup, the 10-year old suffered acute heart failure.

The packed crowd fell silent almost as soon as Monkerhostin passed the post in front. Strangely, very few seemed in any doubt that the worst had happened, probably because Best Mate's trainer, Henrietta Knight, could be seen running down the course with owner Jim Lewis. Sometimes a miracle happens when the screens are hastily erected around a horse, but not on this occasion.

"I was actually on the track when he came down and I was the first one there", Knight said. "I knew immediately that he'd died. I just wanted it to be over as quickly as possible."

In that respect the fates were kind. Course vet Bob Barker, confirming heart failure, said that he was on the spot almost immediately. "But he was dying as we arrived and there was no question of resuscitation," he said.

Best Mate had started well enough in the race and was second or third for a while behind clear leader Ashley Brook. But he lost ground fairly rapidly on the far side and dropped back through the field.

"When the back legs go like that it often means the same thing," the trainer murmured. "I've ridden a horse before that suffered a heart attack and I have to say this looked reminiscent of that. But he didn't fall, or break a leg, and he felt no pain. He was just a very special horse."

A burst blood vessel meant that Best Mate was unable to defend his Gold Cup crown in March. Rising 11, there was no reason for him not to return in good order and hopes were high that he would take his place in the field in 2006 with every chance of becoming the first horse in the post-war era to win the blue riband of jump racing four times.

Terry Biddlecombe, the trainer's husband, was in no doubt the Exeter race was right for him even if the distance, just over two miles, was on the short side.

"What's happened today has nothing to do with the burst blood vessel," he said. "He was completely over that and I've never seen him looking so well. He even won the prize for the best turned-out before the race. He was certainly fit enough, there's no doubt about that."

When the announcement came, there was a stunned, sickening silence.

Biddlecombe first spotted Best Mate in an Irish point-to-pointing field and soon regarded him as a "must have". Purchased by leading bloodstock agent Tom Costello for only 2,500 guineas as a yearling, he probably cost Lewis a hundred times that much when moving to Britain as a four-year-old. He repaid the millionaire furniture dealer in golden memories - a King George VI Chase and three Cheltenham Gold Cups. Lewis, consoled by leading Irish owner J P McManus, remarked sadly: "It's been a privilege to own such a great horse. There have been very few as good."

Horse Racing Ireland have decided to install four replacement fixtures into this month's racing list. The move is to make up for fixtures lost earlier in the year including last weekend's double fixture at Wexford which was cancelled to waterlogging.

The first of them will be at Fairyhouse next Tuesday and will be followed by Limerick (November 14th) and Wexford on November 18th and 27th.)