TRAINER Harry Whittington has been left "absolutely gutted" following the shock news his stable star Arzal has had to be put down.

The six-year-old gave the Wantage-based handler the biggest victory of his short career to date when running out a brilliant winner of the Grade One Manifesto Novices' Chase at Aintree earlier this month.

Whittington said: "It's a terrible blow - we're all absolutely gutted.

"He was a horse with such huge ability and in a small yard like ours, when you have a horse with that sort of character and talent you grow very attached to them. It's very difficult to come to terms with it at the moment.

"This is a very tough game we're in and unfortunately you have these situations sometimes.

"He'll be sorely missed but never forgotten."

Whittington revealed his charge had returned from Aintree with a minor leg injury, but his condition deteriorated after picking up an infection.

He said: "In the post-race week, we discovered he had an infection in one of his hind legs. We tried to get that under control, but then we discovered he had a slight flexor tendon injury in his other hind leg and the infection passed through his body and got into the injured tendon.

"He'd been in hospital for 12 days and had three lots of surgery to try to get the infection under control, but unfortunately when you get an infection in a tendon like that, the tendon deteriorates quite badly.

"Things were looking a little bit better on Friday and we've thrown the kitchen sink at it, but unfortunately it got a lot worse and we've had to call it a day."