This man seems to get a wild hair and decides to run out and stand on this horse track in the middle of a race.
The race was taking place in New Zealand. Race fans packed the park on Saturday. This man though seemed to have a death wish. He runs out onto the turf and then proceeds to stand in the middle of the moving pack.
New Zealand horse racing commentator Andrew Bensley shares a video of the clip. “Incredible vision at Trentham. Jockeys should be congratulated for the feat of not cleaning up the person standing on the track!” he writes. Bensley shares a short clip of the racers avoiding and dodging the man.
In the video, you see the jockeys must swerve their mounts in order to miss the man.
“He was lucky he didn’t get run over,” jockey Danielle Johnson says, according to Outkick. “Most of us didn’t see him until late.”
Additionally, a woman at the event said the man jumped the fence close to the finish line on Saturday afternoon.
“The guy was stupid. All the horses had to separate around him. It’s more about the safety of the horses and jockeys,” she said. “Everyone was yelling at him.”
As a result, the man was arrested after he jumps back over the fence. He’s charged with “criminal nuisance, in doing an act endangering public safety.”
“There was quite a bit of outcry from the crowd when they were taking him away,” the eyewitness says.
Horse Race Fans Watch Man in Disbelief
This race fan captures another angle of the incident. It shows just how harrowing this situation actually is.
“Still in disbelief,” she writes.
Warning: the video includes explicit language.
New Zealand racing stable Te Akau Racing had horses and jockeys in this race. They took to Twitter and tweeted, “Barbaric – he could have killed our horses and our humans – and himself.”
As a matter of fact, another video shows a third view of the man running on the field.
Luckily, no one was injured from this incident at Trentham Racecourse. Thoroughbreds weigh around 1,000 pounds and stand close to 16 hands (5-feet) tall. They travel at speeds around 44 miles per hour. Therefore, this was a recipe for disaster.
Trentham Racecourse
Trentham Racecourse is home to the Wellington Race Club. The racing facility is the main thoroughbred horse racecourse for the Wellington city area in New Zealand.
As a matter of fact, the very popular Wellington Cup Day took place yesterday. The website describes the event as “Wellington’s greatest party and your must-do event for the summer.”
Moreover, not only is there horse racing on this event-filled day, but there’s a beer village and live music.
