LEGENDARY Kauto Star, trained by Olveston’s Paul Nicholls, has been put down after suffering pelvic and neck injuries in a fall in a paddock.
Nicholls led the tributes to the superstar horse he looked after .
Nicholls said: “RIP, my friend. You were a true legend. Once in a lifetime. It’s obviously a very sad day and very sad news to take on board. I’m obviously mortified.
“He was like my best mate, really. I saw him every day and he was a great horse in every way temperament-wise.
“When he left (his stables), it was obviously a big hole we had to fill in everybody’s lives. He’d been so good for racing and so good for everybody.
“When something like this happens, it’s awfully sad, but sometimes things are unavoidable.
“It hasn’t really sunk in, to be honest. Everyone is very upset. It’s happened and we’ve all got to get on.
“He was very sharp, not always easy to deal with and he had his own way of doing things, but he was just a brilliant horse and from day one he was always going to be very classy.”
Owner Clive Smith explained Kauto Star had suffered what appeared to be a minor injury last week but his condition deteriorated over the weekend.
He said: “It’s all very sad. He was put out to grass, as in fact he always was, even at Paul Nicholls’ stables. He was put out for weeks at a time there.
“On this occasion he was out in the lovely sunshine, I was away at the time. I saw him on Friday and, by that time, he’d had what appeared to be a mild injury, but things gradually changed.
“The vet’s report was brilliantly handled by Hattie Lawrence of the Valley Equine Hospital in Lambourn.”
Smith added: “He was not responding to treatment ... and various complications came over the weekend. Although he made an improvement and rallied, as he always did in races, on Monday morning, it was very bad.
“I came back down from Scotland and the decision was taken with Hattie Lawrence to euthanise the horse.”
During a glittering career with champion trainer Nicholls, the 15-year-old won the King George VI Chase at Kempton five times and became the first horse to regain the Cheltenham Gold Cup.
He retired having won 23 of his 41 races and went on to a career in dressage with Laura Collett where, last December, the legendary race horse  took part in the London International Horse Show at Olympia.