Iris’s Gift’s owner Robert Lester said: “We are absolutely gutted. Iris’s Gift gave us so much fun and it is a shattering blow. Now we must ensure that we find him a good home so we can visit him regularly.”

O’Neill’s crack hurdler won 14 races from 25 starts but never progressed into the chasing star connections envisaged.

Pulled up in the Cheltenham Gold Cup, the grey’s two starts this season yielded fifth-placed finishes in the Charlie Hall and the Betfair Chase.

He was a different proposition over smaller obstacles, however, with his defining moment coming at the 2004 Cheltenham Festival, when he showed real class to defeat Baracouda by a length and a half in the Stayers’ Hurdle.

“It is so sad as Jonjo felt that Iris’s Gift still had what it takes to make it as a chaser,” Lester told the Racing Post.