A race at Sandown in England took on a weird twist when a golf ball wound up playing a role in it.
Jockeys Charlie Bennett and Kieren Fox and their trusty steeds went awry on Friday because of a stray shot from a nearby pitch-and-putt course.
The straight sprint chute at the Esher track is adjacent to a pitch and putt course and a ball had found its way onto it, just 100 yards from the winning post.
It appeared that it was flicked up by a hoof of the eventual winner, Big Lachie, and cracked Bennett on his helmet before ricocheting in front of Fox, who was towards the rear of the field.
Bishop and Stanford carried on to finish third but Fox’s mount Luxford jinked to the right at the sight of the flying white object and deposited Fox onto the turf.
Luckily neither jockey was hurt and both rode in later races, with Fox among the winners.
The action was caught here:
Fore! Golf ball interference in the 1.45pm at Sandown Park earlier.pic.twitter.com/YWhFAxy7l0
— Oddschecker (@Oddschecker) September 9, 2016
“It happened so fast I didn’t know what had caused it but you can see on the replay it hit Charlie’s helmet and straight across in front of my filly’s face,” Fox told The Telegraph.
“It could have been worse, imagine if it had hit Charlie in the face.”
