BEST MATE, the horse that won three Gold Cups and the affection of the nation, has run his last race. He died by the final fence on Exeter racecourse yesterday, almost certainly of a heart attack, leaving his adoring owner inconsolable and a crowd of 6,000 silent in grief.

Few racehorses have reached so far into the consciousness of the sporting community and his end was distressingly public. He crumpled to the turf as he was being trotted back after being pulled up for the first time in his 22-race career.

Any talk of blame or recriminations, however, seem utterly misguided. This was the first time Best Mate had run since being beaten in Ireland last Christmas. A nosebleed on the gallops had denied him an attempt at a fourth Gold Cup and his recovery had been monitored slowly and scrupulously by his husband-and-wife training team of Henrietta Knight and Terry Biddlecombe.

He went into his comeback, in a high-quality Haldon Gold Cup, as second favourite to regain his chasing crown from Kicking King at Cheltenham next March and had shown much of his usual verve until weakening suddenly as the field turned for home. Having never finished outside the first two, he was pulled up with four fences to go.

Knight was the first to reach her fallen hero. “I’ve been on a horse that has died of a heart attack and it looked very much like that — the legs wobble and they go down,” she said. “Horses have to go, we all go one day, but it is tragic for connections.”

None more so than Jim Lewis, the owner, whose silver hair and moustache have become so familiar in recent years. Lewis’s renowned good fortune has finally turned and he was choked with emotion as he spoke of the horse that made all his racing dreams come true. “Very few horses in the world have been this good or this popular,” he said.

Around him, the shocked faces of a packed crowd, many of whom had travelled to Devon specifically to watch Best Mate, told their own story.

Before the race, Best Mate’s fan club, dressed in the claret-and-blue Aston Villa colours adopted by Lewis, had strained for a view of him, then applauded him out on to the course.

Knight, whose tender treatment of Best Mate infuriated those who wished to see him race more often but doubtless extended his time at the top, said of him: “He was the perfect horse, with beautiful conformation. He was the greatest trier, even if sometimes he did things so easily.

“He died doing what he loved, which was to race. We’ll all miss him, he made so many people happy in his time, but at least he was never beaten in the Gold Cup. It’s a bit like when Persian Punch died at Ascot (in April last year). These horses are a part of people’s everyday lives.”

Biddlecombe, whose face has crumpled into tears more than once after Best Mate’s Gold Cups, was remarkably stoical. “I haven’t cried because it was a good way for him to go,” he said. “Nobody wanted it to end, but he didn’t break a leg or suffer any pain.”

That jump racing will be the poorer for the loss was reflected by the hush that fell over the crowd and by the words of Martin Broughton, the British Horseracing Board chairman, himself an owner with Knight. “Best Mate captivated the public,” he said. “His wonderful achievements will be remembered for ever.” After a routine post-mortem, Best Mate will be buried on Exeter racecourse, where a permanent memorial will be created. Few horses receive such treatment. Few horses have been so special.