WITH AN ESCORT

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 270, 4 February 1928, Page 6

WITH AN ESCORT

ZEALOUS AMATEUR CALCUTTA INCIDENT RECALLED An enthusiastic sportsman at Kempton Park (London) last month climbed over the rails, mounted a riderless horse and rode it back to meet the jockey, who had been hurt in a fall at the last fence. Unfortunately his zeal and his apparent knowledge of the rules of racing were not appreciated by the local police, who are reported to have escorted him off the racecourse. The horse was the grey Glangesia, one of the three runners in the Uxbridge ’Chase. The jockey, Farragher, remounted, and by riding past the judge, gained the £ls which went to the owner of the third. A Scarce-known Rule I suppose, writes a racing correspondent, that very , few people, not excluding many regular racegoers, are aware that under the rules of racing anyone can get up on and finish on a horse whose jockey has been temporarily disabled, providing the conditions of the race are not violated. For instance, if the race was for amateur riders only, any peuson holding a professional licence could not do so, while, of course, there was the question of weight. H. Escott and B. Bale, tlie trainers, have both, in recent years, caught loose horses and ridden them home, and I believe it is common on courses in Ireland for spectators to do this. But the most remarkable incident of this description in my experience was at Calcutta, where a man, weighing certainly not less than 14st., caught a loose horse four or five fences from the winning post and won on it, despite a fall at the last jump.