Best Mate at Exeter: The Complete Story

Breeding and Background

Best Mate was foaled on 10 May 1995, bred by Judy Fogarty in County Cork, Ireland. By Un Desperado out of Katday, his pedigree combined French jumping blood with staying stamina — a combination that produced a horse whose jumping technique was instinctive and whose ability to gallop at sustained pace over three miles was exceptional.

He was purchased by Jim Lewis after being spotted by trainer Henrietta Knight and her husband, former England cricket captain Terry Biddlecombe, who was Knight's assistant and later husband. The horse was initially schooled in Ireland before being brought to Knight's yard at West Lockinge Farm in Oxfordshire. It was there that his exceptional jumping ability began to be fully understood.

Early Career

Best Mate's hurdle career was brief by design. Knight recognised that he was built for fences and that hurdling was merely a necessary stepping stone. He won his hurdle races competently without being dramatic about them, and moved to fences with a confidence that suggested he had been waiting for the bigger obstacles.

His novice chasing season in 2000/01 was outstanding. He won the Arkle Challenge Trophy at the Cheltenham Festival — the Grade 1 novice chase over two miles — and immediately became the subject of Gold Cup conversations that his trainer was careful not to encourage too loudly. The Arkle win was a performance of economy and precision: he met each fence right, jumped economically, and ran on with authority.

The Three Gold Cups

Best Mate won the Cheltenham Gold Cup in 2002, 2003, and 2004 — the first horse to achieve three consecutive victories in the race since Arkle in 1964, 1965, and 1966. The comparison with Arkle was inevitable and, for many observers, legitimate. Timeform rated him at 184, which placed him among the very finest chasers in the post-Arkle era.

Each Gold Cup told a slightly different story. In 2002 he won convincingly under Jim Cullen, who was standing in after McCoy's planned ride was switched. In 2003 he won again under Jim Cullen. In 2004, ridden by Paul Carberry, he overcame a race run at an unusually strong pace to win for the third time. Henrietta Knight trained all three winners with careful preparation — the campaigns were planned around Cheltenham, with every other engagement subordinated to the need to arrive at the Gold Cup at peak fitness.

Character

Best Mate was described by everyone who worked with him as a horse of strong personality. He was not easy to train — he required careful management, and his preparation was notoriously complex. Knight's approach to him was essentially that of a horse who needed everything to go right. He did not thrive on hard work; he thrived on precision.

Jim Lewis, his owner, spoke frequently about the horse's character — a stubbornness mixed with a quality that made people want to be near him. He attracted attention wherever he went, not just from racegoers but from racing people who recognised that they were watching something exceptional.

The Final Season

The 2005/06 season was planned as a fourth Gold Cup attempt. Best Mate had missed the 2005 Gold Cup through injury, and his return to racing in November 2005 was the first step in a campaign that Knight believed could deliver one more Cheltenham win. The Haldon Gold Cup at Exeter was the chosen starting point — the same race he had contested earlier in his career, on a track he knew.

He never completed it.

The Haldon Gold Cup

The Haldon Gold Cup is a Grade 2 National Hunt steeplechase run at Exeter over approximately two miles and one and a half furlongs, with twelve fences. It takes place in early November, making it one of the first significant jumping contests of the new season after the summer break. Its timing and grade have made it a natural early-season target for horses being pointed at the King George VI Chase or the Queen Mother Champion Chase.

The race has a history that extends well before Best Mate's connection to it. Travado won three consecutive renewals in the early 1990s, while Viking Flagship and Edredon Bleu — both champions in their own right — also won it. The field it attracts is typically composed of quality two-mile and two-and-a-half-mile chasers looking for a public workout before bigger engagements later in the winter.

For Best Mate, the Haldon Gold Cup served the specific purpose of giving him a competitive race in early November before the Gold Cup campaign built toward Cheltenham in March. Henrietta Knight used it as a test — a way of confirming that the horse was right before committing to the harder options later in the season.

Exeter's Track

Exeter Racecourse runs right-handed on the slopes of Haldon Hill, roughly eight miles south-west of the city centre. The circuit is undulating and approximately a mile and a half in circumference, with long straights and demanding fences that are considered among the stiffer in National Hunt racing. The ground tends to come up soft or heavy in the autumn and winter, which suits horses of Best Mate's stamp — powerful galloping chasers who handle give underfoot without difficulty.

The Exeter racecourse history stretches from its 1898 foundation, and the course has consistently staged quality National Hunt racing through the decades. The Devon National, run over four and a half miles in January or February, is the other feature race on the calendar — a different test from the Haldon Gold Cup but equally demanding.

Best Mate's Haldon Gold Cup Record

Best Mate ran in the Haldon Gold Cup in November 2001 and produced a performance that confirmed his status as a leading Gold Cup contender heading into that winter. He won the race, jumping efficiently and galloping strongly to the line. The performance was exactly what Knight needed from it — a clean race, an accurate jumping display, and a confident win against a competitive field.

The 2005 Haldon Gold Cup was planned as a repeat of that autumn template. Best Mate would run in November, win or run well, and then be pointed at the Gold Cup campaign. His form coming into the race suggested he was training well. Paul Carberry, who had ridden him to his third Gold Cup, was on board again. The conditions at Exeter on 1 November 2005 were good — not extreme, not the kind of heavy ground that causes concern.

Supporting the Best at Exeter

Exeter's autumn card on Haldon Gold Cup day assembles a programme of National Hunt racing that draws significant attendances for a course of its size. The 5,000 capacity is typically well-used on the November day, and the course operates as one of the West Country's principal jumping venues in a region where National Hunt racing is popular and well-supported.

For those who follow the Devon National as well as the Haldon Gold Cup, Exeter provides two significant jumping occasions across the season. The Devon National in early spring and the Haldon Gold Cup in autumn bracket the West Country's most significant racing events, and Best Mate's connection to the November race remains the most discussed part of Exeter's contemporary history.

The 2001 Haldon Gold Cup Win

Best Mate's November 2001 appearance in the Haldon Gold Cup was, from a racing perspective, everything his trainer needed it to be. He jumped the twelve fences at Exeter with the precision that had become his signature — meeting each obstacle cleanly, never being tested by an awkward stride, jumping in a rhythm that made the race look straightforward.

The win set up the campaign that delivered the first Cheltenham Gold Cup in March 2002. When you trace the sequence of events — Haldon Gold Cup in November 2001, Cheltenham Gold Cup in March 2002 — the Exeter race appears as part of a carefully constructed narrative. Without it going smoothly, the campaign that followed might have been more cautious. Knight knew she had a horse in peak condition after Exeter, and the rest of the season reflected that confidence.

Three Gold Cups: The Record that Defined Him

The three consecutive Cheltenham Gold Cups between 2002 and 2004 are the centrepiece of Best Mate's legacy. No horse had done it since Arkle, and no horse has done it since Best Mate. The victories were each achieved against strong fields that included the best staying chasers Ireland and Britain could produce.

The 2002 Gold Cup was his first, and in some ways his most secure — he was fit, focused, and gave a performance that left little room for doubt. The 2003 edition saw him win again against a field that included strong Irish opposition. The 2004 Gold Cup was perhaps the most satisfying from Henrietta Knight's perspective, coming after the injury concerns that had surrounded him through that season.

1 November 2005: The Last Race

What happened at Exeter on 1 November 2005 was witnessed by the crowd in the stands and by the television cameras covering the race. Early in the Haldon Gold Cup, Best Mate was pulled up by Paul Carberry. Before the horse could be brought to a halt safely, he collapsed. A suspected heart attack killed him within minutes.

The response in racing was immediate and widespread. The racecourse fell quiet in the way that crowds do when they understand something significant and terrible has happened. Broadcasts suspended their normal programme rhythm. Racing writers who had grown accustomed to treating his Gold Cup wins as part of the furniture of the sport found themselves writing obituaries for a horse who had seemed, in the way that great horses do, almost permanent.

The reaction outside racing was also notable. Best Mate had attracted followers who did not normally follow jump racing — people drawn by his personality, his record, and the narrative that Henrietta Knight and Jim Lewis had built around him through three Gold Cup campaigns. His death at Exeter reached audiences beyond the sport.

The Response from Exeter

Exeter Racecourse's response to Best Mate's death demonstrated an understanding of what the horse had meant. The course worked to commemorate his connection to the Haldon Gold Cup in a way that acknowledged both his visits and the circumstances of his death. His ashes were buried beside the winning post at Cheltenham — a decision made by Jim Lewis and Henrietta Knight — but Exeter's association with the final chapter of his story gives the course a place in his permanent record.

The Haldon Gold Cup has continued to be run each November, maintaining its Grade 2 status and its role as an early-season target for quality two-mile chasers. When the field lines up at Exeter each year in early November, Best Mate's presence is felt by those who remember November 2005. That quality — the way a horse's absence can be felt as strongly as their presence — is the measure of how significant he was.

How Best Mate Changed Exeter's Profile

Before November 2005, Exeter was known in racing circles as a solid West Country jumping course with a respected Grade 2 race in the Haldon Gold Cup. Its status was that of a well-regarded regional track — valued by trainers who used it for autumn preparation, popular with its local following, and consistently competitive without generating national headlines.

Best Mate's death changed that profile permanently. Racing people who might previously have associated Exeter primarily with the Devon National or as a background item in the season's calendar now connect it immediately with 1 November 2005. For those who loved Best Mate, Exeter carries a particular weight. For those who study jump racing history, it is a significant location.

This is not the legacy Exeter's management would have chosen. But the association has given the course a place in the wider story of the sport that a regional track rarely achieves, and the course's response — maintaining the Haldon Gold Cup's quality and profile, continuing to stage significant jumping races — has been appropriate.

The Haldon Gold Cup's Continued Significance

The Haldon Gold Cup has maintained its Grade 2 status and its November date, continuing to attract quality fields of two-mile chasers as an early-season marker. In the years since Best Mate, winners have included horses who went on to win at Cheltenham and Sandown, confirming that the race retains its quality regardless of the circumstances that gave it international attention in 2005.

For trainers targeting the Queen Mother Champion Chase or the Ryanair Chase, Exeter in November offers the same proposition it offered Henrietta Knight in 2001: a properly competitive Grade 2 run on a demanding track, early enough in the season to inform preparation without asking too much of a horse that has bigger races ahead.

Henrietta Knight and the Training Legacy

Henrietta Knight's career was defined by Best Mate in a way that is both a tribute to the horse and a slight reduction of her wider achievement. She trained many good horses and managed many successful careers; Best Mate was the peak of that work, and the three Gold Cups represented a pinnacle that few trainers have reached. The care she showed in managing him — always prioritising his long-term wellbeing over short-term prize money — made her a model of thoughtful training.

Her description of his final preparation for the 2005/06 season, and of the morning he died at Exeter, is among the most honest and affecting accounts of loss in racing literature. The relationship she had with the horse — professional, devoted, and ultimately grief-stricken — reflected what made the Best Mate story absorbing to people outside racing as much as within it.

Why Exeter Matters

For those who visit Exeter today, the Haldon Gold Cup is the headline event on the November card. The race's history is told partly through Travado's three wins in the 1990s, partly through the other champions who have won it, and partly through Best Mate's connection to the race and the course. That layering of stories is what gives a racing venue its depth. Exeter has it in abundance.

The West Country has always been well-served for jumping — the course has staged National Hunt racing for over a century and its supporters follow it with real knowledge and commitment. Best Mate belonged to Cheltenham and to the Gold Cup first; but Exeter claims its part of his story, and the course keeps it.