Teenagers seconds from trampling

Racehorses and the following vet's ambulance just missed two teenagers who wandered onto the track. Photo / Trackside

Two teenagers were almost trampled by racehorses when they wandered on to New Plymouth's Pukekura Raceway during a meeting yesterday afternoon.

The students scaled a 4m wire boundary fence, walked up a hill and across a field before they entered the track to see a field of thoroughbred horses galloping towards them at 40km/h.

Taranaki Thoroughbred Racing chief executive Carey Hobbs said the Asian youths, aged about 15 and 16, appeared to have no idea they were on a racetrack.

They had just enough time to duck back under the course rail - but were almost cleaned up again when a vet's ambulance following the horses around the track zoomed past just metres from them.

"It was pretty close, but then they saw the horses coming. It was easy enough for them to duck under the rail again, but with the horses travelling at 40km/h, it was only half a second from disaster."

His staff immediately raced over to the students, who Mr Hobbs said "looked as though they'd received the fright of their lives".

"They didn't speak a lot of English, but were very apologetic. They were 100 per cent in the wrong and had they known where they were they obviously wouldn't have gone on to the place. They certainly won't be doing it again."

The near miss, captured on Trackside, was the first Mr Hobbs had seen at the raceway in 25 years.

"You can't make a racecourse idiot-proof when it's right in the middle of town. There's nothing you can do, and it probably won't happen again for another 50 years."