A horse named after a trainer who died after a fall at his yard escaped from the stalls and exited the racecourse before his planned track debut. Brocklesby Bill was named after the late Bill Turner, who died in hospital in August after fracturing his skull in a fall in what his daughter Kathy described as a ‘freak accident’.
Turner, who was 78, trained the winner of Doncaster’s Brocklesby Stakes, the first two-year-old race of the Flat Turf season, five times. The horse was declared to run in a 7f race for novices at Salisbury on Thursday but he had to be withdrawn after breaking free at the start.
According to a stewards inquiry, Brocklesby Bill threw his rider Ben Ffrench Davis at the start and burst through the rails, departing the racecourse.
After questioning the clerk of the course, a report was sent to the Head Office of the British Horse Racing Authority for further consideration.
The chaos and efforts to capture the runaway, which held up the start of the race, was filmed by RacingTV cameras. He is shown bolting through a hedge and across farmland.
Presenter Lydia Hislop said: “I’m enjoying Brocklesby Bill’s sense of humour. I can’t help but think that Bill Turner’s mischievous sense of humour has had a hand in this!”
He was eventually safely caught, but the coverage of the incident upset trainer Kathy Turner.
She told the Racing Post: “What had upset my owners was that they continued to film him going through hedges and cantering across fields.
“The owner bred him and she pulled him out of the mare. She found it very distressing.
“He’s all good now, but he went nearly three miles before he ended up on a footpath and a dog walker caught him.
“Ben was the first one down to try to catch him. The vet was brilliant. He clambered through the brambles and hedges with my son.”
