It's little more than a week now since the racing world was left stunned by the death of the great Best Mate.

For trainer Henrietta Knight, husband Terry Biddlecombe and the staff at their West Lockinge stables, near Wantage, it's been a matter of trying to come to terms with the loss of the triple Cheltenham Gold Cup winner.

In a moving series of television interviews, the pair reflected on Matey's death of a suspected heart attack at Exeter, what made him such an outstanding champion and his memorable trium- phs.

Knight said: "It was just such a shock, so sudden and so unexpected and it is still difficult to come to terms with it and believe it really happened."

The trainer has been widely praised for the rare dignity she showed in the face of such adver- sity.

But she admitted it had been tough. "I just sort of managed to be brave and strong and calm. But when you get back to reality and come back to the yard where Best Mate has been for the last six years and see all the people and the faces you know, there is a great big gap then, and it really strikes home.

"It was a very sombre mood in the yard the next morning. They are starting to get over it a bit now.

"We filled up the box straightaway that night with my old horse Red Blazer, because I didn't want to come by the next morning and find there was an empty box.

"He put this yard on the map and now has taken himself away from the yard and there is a huge hole. We will never replace him."

Knight also gave a rare insight into Best Mate's character - and what made him stand out from the rest.

"He was a great enthusiast and he loved racing. He loved galloping and he loved jumping," she said.

"He just loved showing off. He loved a big crowd and he loved the people and he felt he was part of it and he really reacted in the way the country wanted him to react.

"That was why they took him to their hearts - because he was part of them."

That popularity has been illustrated again by what Knight says are an unbelievable amount of messages of sympathy - including one from The Queen - that have poured into the West Lockinge stables over the past week.

And when it comes to Best Mate's triumphs, "those magical days at Cheltenham" - as Knight describes them - when he won three Gold Cups inevitably stand out.

"We will never forget them - especially the last one," she said.

"There was not the pressure for the first one," she explained. "It was not so expected, but everybody built him up for the third one and there was enormous pressure. Then there was the huge relief when it all went well and the result was right. It was the third one that means the most to me."

Fittingly, owner Jim Lewis has decided that Best Mate's ashes will be laid to rest at Cheltenham where officials are considering erecting a statue as a permanent memorial.

And Knight revealed that plans are also in the pipeline for a statue of her favourite - which has already been made by leading racehorse sculptor Philip Blacker - to be put up in Lockinge next year.

"He was the horse of my dreams and he fulfilled them," she added.

That day at Exeter he looked so magnificent. I watched him and I thought: you are just so beautiful. You are just perfection in a racehorse - you are just perfection in a thoroughbred - no wonder you have done so well.