DENMAN, the 2008 Cheltenham Gold Cup winner, was put down on Tuesday at the age of 18.

His former trainer Paul Nicholls said the brilliant chaser “had begun to go downhill in the past few days” and was “put to sleep painlessly.”

The trainer told Betfair: “The decision was taken by his devoted owner Paul Barber with the full support of myself, our head lad Clifford Baker and our vet Buffy Shirley-Beavan.

“We all agreed it was the right thing to do because he had begun to go downhill in the past few days and we did not want to see him suffer.”

Bred in Fermoy by Colman O’Flynn, Denman was originally trained by Adrian Maguire to win a five-year-old maiden point-to-point at Liscarroll before being bought privately by owners Paul Barber and Harry Findlay.

Denman was renowned for his iron will on a racecourse and won 14 races from 24 starts. His finest hour came in the 2008 Cheltenham Gold Cup, when he defeated stablemate Kauto Star by seven lengths in a race for the ages.

Denman claimed four Grade 1 races and was also twice successful in the Hennessy Gold Cup at Newbury in 2007 and 2009. After his first Hennessy win the horse returned to Ireland for the Lexus Chase at Leopardstown which he won comfortably. He retired in 2011 having earned over £1 million in prize-money.

Nicholls said: “Denman was known affectionately to punters and racegoers as ‘The Tank’, which I always felt was a fitting description. He was a magic horse who had a tremendous following because of the wholehearted way he went about his racing.

“He was tough, hardy and willing, wasn’t the easiest to train, and would bite your hand off in his box given half a chance. He came along at the right time and was one of our superstars during a golden era for Team Ditcheat.”

Ruby Walsh rode Denman on 10 occasions, winning six times. “He was an incredible athlete and his second Hennessy Gold Cup win in 2009 was the best weight carrying performance by a horse that I’ve ever been involved in,” the jockey told Paddy Power.

“He was probably a handicap certainty when he won his first Hennessy off a mark of 161, but to win his second off a mark of 174, which was 13lb higher than when he won it the first time, that was incredible. As good as his Gold Cup win was, what he did in that second Hennessy Gold Cup, off that mark, was amazing.”

Walsh added: “For such a big horse, he had such movement of his feet in front of a jump – it was incredible. He was a brilliant horse to ride over a fence and he was just an unbelievable athlete. He was just an incredible racehorse and an incredible athlete.”