The recoil properties of fragments produced by the interaction of 4.4 GeV deuterons with a 197Au target have been studied. New experimental data on recoil properties for 90 nuclei, varying from 24Na to 198Au, were obtained. The technique applied was the thick-target thick-catcher and induced activity method. The deuteron beam was obtained from the Nuclotron of the Laboratory of High Energies (LHE), Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR), Dubna. The experimental data were analyzed on the basis of the standard two-step vector model formalism. From the analysis of the reaction investigated here, we could find evidence that the cooling process of excited nuclei can be due to the coexistence of different decay modes such as evaporation, fission, and (multi)fragmentation. Fission and multifragmentation can contribute appreciably to the formation of products in the intermediate mass range. The kinematic characteristics of residual nuclei formed in the present deuteron-induced reaction have been compared to those from proton-induced reactions with gold target.