SENSATIONAL ACCIDENT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 10 January 1939, Page 9

SENSATIONAL ACCIDENT

IN GREYMOUTH TROTTING RACE.

NINE HORSES AND DRIVERS. INVOLVED. Nine horses and their drivers were involved in a sensational accident at the Greymouth Trotting Club’s meeting on Saturday. Only two of the 11 starters avoided the accident. It was remarkable that both horses and drivers escaped serious injury. To cap the incident, a driver watching the race captured one of the horses after it had recovered its feet and drove it home to return a dividend which was much better than that paid by the winner. ■ The event was the Victoria Handicap. When running in second position, the well-known horse Rewai crossed his legs and fell. Passport went over thej top of Rewai, and crashed and the seven horses following these two had no chance of avoiding the mix-up. Down they came one after another in the worst smash that has taken place in trotting for a very long period. Horses, drivers and sulkies were thrown about in hopeless confusion and the situation appeared ugly as horses struggled to their feet. It was with great relief - that the crowd heard a broadcast that there were no serious injuries.

At the time, a horse called Storm Signal was leading, followed by Devotion, racing outside Rewai. Devotion swerved away from Rewai when' the accident happened and went on to pass Storm Signal in the run home. The well-known trotting driver, G. M. Mouritz, who was not driving in the race, captured Worthy Need, one of the horses involved in the smash, and completed the distance several minutes after the first and second horses had finished. This action brought to the backers of the Worthy Need —Storm Signal bracket a much better dividend than that received by the backers of Devotion, the winner.

With the exception of the mix-up at Auckland in 1927, when a horse fell and brought down six other runners, the accident was probably the worst in the history of trotting in New Zealand.