Young joy riders in a stolen tractor ploughed through a section of the riding rail at Waipukurau Racecourse last Monday night, and caused minor damage to the track.
After stealing the Waipukurau Jockey Club's old blue Ford 3600 mowing tractor around 8pm and damaging the track and a section of rail, the youths then made a slow getaway in the 1960s-built tractor over Lakeview Tce towards the old Waipukurau hospital.
A short time later it crashed into the hospital fence and was abandoned. Two youths were later arrested after police were provided with a photo of the offenders, taken by a local resident.
After jockey club member Kirsty Lawrence posted about the incident on Facebook the next morning, a resident replied that she had heard a tractor being driven up Lakeview Tce that night by what "sounded likes kids, and not driving it very well".
![Waipukurau Jockey Club member Brendan Lewis returning the stolen blue Ford tractor last Tuesday morning to the racecourse.](https://www.nzherald.co.nz/resizer/v2/DNDC7BZPB7XLY6KKA2ZOOKDKY4.jpg?auth=51bd10851ad1015e11f652fa90631acd29452cef25f0e95f130c44d8090ad395&width=16&height=11&quality=70&smart=true)