Best Mate succumbs to heart attack on comeback

BEST MATE, the first chaser since Arkle to win three consecutive Gold Cups, died of a heart attack during a comeback race at Exeter yesterday.

The jumping great’s eagerly awaited return after nearly a year off the track ended in tragedy in the Haldon Gold Cup.

Jockey Paul Carberry, riding the Henrietta Knight-trained star for the first time, tracked the leader Ashley Brook early on but alarm signals rang out when Carberry started to nudge his mount along as the leaders drew clear. Carberry began to ease up the ten-year-old in the home straight, eventually pulling him up, and screens were swiftly erected around him.