Australian jockey Celine Gaudray escapes disaster at Pukekohe

Luberon swerved and ran to the outside of the track. Photo / Twitter

A leading Australian jockey having her first day riding in New Zealand narrowly escaped disaster in a $175,000 race at Pukekohe this afternoon.

Victorian apprentice jockey Celine Gaudray is one of the most promising young riders in Australia and flew to New Zealand this week to ride at the Pukekohe thoroughbred meeting because of a shortage of local jockeys through other riding obligations or suspensions.

After winning Race 4 earlier in the programme Gaudray was well on her way to winning the $175,000 Jamieson Park Soliloquy Stakes when Luberon raced clear at the 300m mark.

But Luberon, who is only a three-year-old filly and still learning how to race, swerved wildly at the 200m mark and ran right to the outside of the track.

With her head facing to the inside of the track Luberon didn’t see the outside rail and ran into it and then through a section of it before she was able to be straightened.

A lot going on here

Great piece of horsemanship from Celine Gaudray to stay on Luberon pic.twitter.com/whfD5A4P3V

— Trackside NZ (@TracksideNZ) October 28, 2023

Running rails, both on the inside and outside of most racetracks, are made of plastic and designed to break into pieces if struck with too much force so they don’t injure horses or jockeys as the older aluminium rails could have.

So Luberon only suffered some minor skin loss in the incident while Gaudray was also uninjured and returned to the track to ride the winner of the very next race.

Michael Guerin wrote his first nationally published racing articles while still in school and started writing about horse racing and the gambling industry for the Herald as a 20-year-old in 1990. He became the Herald’s Racing Editor in 1995 and covers the world’s biggest horse racing carnivals.