Lance O'Sullivan could not wait to find the Waikato Racing Club course manager after yesterday's $15,000 Sarten Memorial at Te Rapa.
O'Sullivan thanked him for the strength of the running rail supports in the ground.
"If they hadn't been I would have been through the rail," said O'Sullivan after being desperately unlucky on raging favourite Diamond Cashel.
The Matamata jockey was charging through a rails gap at the 220m inside Mi Centie when eventual second placegetter Quesada moved in several widths and tightened both horses.
Diamond Cashel scraped the running rail and O'Sullivan's thoughts raced back to the horror accident which shattered his leg and came close to ending his career when he landed on the running rail on Cox Plate day at Moonee Valley almost exactly three years ago.
"I was minding my own business and was just going to go on and get the prize when, zap."
Leith Innes was similarly in trouble on Mi Centie and O'Sullivan did not mind cracking a smile while telling a story on his fellow jockey.
"There was this sort of high pitched scream coming from somewhere in the direction of Leith.
"It was like we were sitting in the back row of a horror movie."
Quesada's rider Michelle Wenn was suspended from after tomorrow's races until the end of Melbourne Cup raceday, November 7.
Diamond Cashel was on trial for the $130,000 1000 Guineas at Riccarton and O'Sullivan was certain the filly would have won clearly but for the interference.
"She would have bolted in. She'd have won untouched."
Trainer Paul O'Sullivan confirmed Diamond Cashel had shown more than enough to ensure the trip to Christchurch.
Diamond Cashel lost skin off a leg in the incident, but there was no worrying damage.
The race was a blow for Paul O'Sullivan, who on Saturday in Melbourne watched stable runner Falls The Shadow cop similar misfortune in the $A200,000 Norman Robinson Stakes.
Butterscotch won the Sarten Memorial clearly and while co-trainer Jim Gibbs accepts there may have been unlucky runners, he was not prepared to take any of the gloss off his own filly.
Gibbs has no argument with Butterscotch being beaten by Star Satire in the Lowland Stakes at her previous start, but was extremely upset at being knocked out of the race at the start when Butterscotch was fifth to Spring Rain in the Highview Stakes.
"She was wiped out by the winner early and was never given a chance.
"She lost a bit of confidence in that incident and Michael [Coleman] said she wasn't that happy with horses around her in the trail today."
Going on to win easily should have worked well for Butterscotch's confidence.
"She won with her ears pricked and she'll have no problem with stepping up from 1400m to 1600m," said Gibbs.
Gibbs is almost certain he will wait for the Waikato Guineas rather than sending Butterscotch to Riccarton for the 1000 Guineas.
"I don't think I want to put her under that sort of stress. I own her myself, so it makes that decision a bit easier.
"I know Diamond Cashel was unlucky today, but we'll get to meet her again somewhere and I know my filly can take a trial, where Diamond Cashel can't do that.
"It makes you hard to beat when you can go forward like Butterscotch and still produce a kick at the end."
Quesada did well to finish second to Diamond Cashel, but was relegated to fifth. Conquistar was promoted to second, Equuleus to third and Mi Centie to fourth.
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Former New Zealand jockey Phillip Alderman was found dead in a motel room in Dubai on Sunday.
Alderman apparently detoured to a motel while on his way to the airport to board a flight to New Zealand to see family and friends.
Dubai police say there are no suspicious circumstances.
Alderman won the Auckland Cup on the Alan Jones-trained Chimbu in 1983.
Soon after he moved to Melbourne where he enjoyed group one success aboard King Marauding in the Manikato Stakes.
In the late 1980s he was stable rider for veteran George Hanlon, who won Saturday's $A2 million Caulfield Cup with Diatribe, and more recently has worked in Graeme Rogerson's Melbourne stable.
He moved to Dubai as a trackwork rider when Rogerson opened a stable there.
Paul O'Sullivan may have been downcast over Diamond Cashel's misfortune yesterday, but he was heartened by back-to-back winners Mick and Risk And Reward.
Mick was hugely impressive clearing maidens at only his second start.
Disaster looked like striking Mick as well when he was locked up behind a wall of horses halfway down the home straight, but Lance O'Sullivan found him a narrow gap along the rails and he drove through like a horse heading places.
Racing: Squeeze on rail raises horror crash memory
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