THIS is the moment ‘complete carnage’ unfolded in a race at Wetherby – with four of the six runners losing their riders by the second hurdle.
Six lined up for the 4.10, a Junior ‘National Hunt’ Hurdle for three-year-olds, but only two finished after a nightmarish start to the two-mile contest.
Global Eclipse, the 11-10 fav, kicked things off in bizarre fashion when he veered jockey Harry Skelton sharply right at the very start.
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He managed to get things under control, though, and all six made good progress as they went to the first.
But that was where things went wrong.
First, 12-1 Snow Dragon, who was leading at the time, jinked left and unseated 5lb claimer jockey Alan Doyle.
Then all hell really broke loose.
The loose horse went sideways at the second and ran right across 100-30 Adaay Forever and 11-1 Jack The Boss.
Sam Twiston-Davies did well to stay on the latter but Philip Armson was gone from the former.
The chaos also led to 9-2 Romancier under Brian Hughes and 18-1 For You Buzz with Adam Wedge in the saddle falling spectacularly.
Romancier was brought down while Wedge went flying from the Evan Williams-trained For You Buzz.
That left just two horses, Jack The Boss and Global Eclipse, and they crawled round until after the last when it turned into a sprint which Jack The Boss won.
But the race was really all about the chaos at the first two flights.
Racing TV host Tom Bull described the scenes as ‘complete carnage’.
Fortunately all jockeys and horses were back on their feet and perfectly fine after the incident.
But a fuming Dan Skelton hit out at punters after he was verbally abused following the end of the race.
Skelton said: “He shouted it was a bent race!
“You wouldn’t believe the amount of abuse we get. It’s incredible – my odds-on runner in the first race had a breathing issue but I still got calls and texts about it.”
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