Racing: Payout over runaway horse

SYDNEY - Trainer Gai Waterhouse and the Australian Jockey Club (AJC) have been found liable to pay personal injury damages to a mother and daughter traumatised by a runaway horse that leapt on to their car outside Randwick racecourse.

New South Wales Supreme Court Justice Peter John Hidden said yesterday the accident in January 2001 was as bizarre as it was distressing for Ruzica and Natalie Petrovic.

The exact amount of the payout will be determined at another court hearing next month.

Justice Hidden found both parties were liable to pay the Petrovics for some physical injury, but primarily for the psychological injury they suffered because the racehorse broke free from handlers and escaped through a gate of Sydney's premier racetrack on to a busy road.

-AAP