Racehorse on the loose through town after unseating jockey and escaping from track

A racehorse who unseated its jockey and escaped from the track galloped miles down the road and into a nearby town.

Rufio started a 100-1 chance for a jumps race at Musselburgh in Scotland on Monday at 3.15pm.

However, he quickly unseated his jockey Lucy Brown at the fourth fence of the 2m7½f chase and decided to sprint off the course, in an “extremely rare” incident.

The 10-year-old horse jumped over the barriers and galloped two miles to the town of Prestonpans, in the east of Edinburgh.

Footage of the horse was quickly circulated on social media, with Rufio still wearing its saddle and No7 race number.

He was later found by a member of the public when he decided to stop at some traffic lights.

Musselburgh’s clerk of the course Rory Innes told the Racing Post: “It was an unfortunate incident.

“The jockey was unseated and the horse did a full circuit and escaped through the exterior permanent railing.”

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He said people at the grounds immediately started to try and locate the horse, before it was ultimately found by a member of the public in Prestonpans.

A horse ambulance was sent to bring Rufio back to the grounds. Neither the horse nor the jockey sustained any injuries.

A racecourse spokesman said: “A horse unseated its rider in the last race and made its way out of the racecourse.

“This is an extremely rare occurrence and fortunately the horse was returned unscathed to the racecourse by our ground staff after its short journey towards Prestonpans.”

Following the escape, Rufio’s trainer Gary Rutherford said that the horse is “grand today”.

“There is not a bother on him,” Rutherford added.

Speaking to The Mirror, he said: “I was actually at Newcastle. We had a runner there last night so I didn’t actually find out until later on that he was loose and galloping along the road to Prestonpans. I think it was a freak incident really.

“Lucy is grand too, I think her plan is to go hunter chasing with him. She wanted to give him a couple of runs over rules beforehand.”

“I think he got thought the plastic rails and found his way out of the racecourse. These things don’t happen very often”, he added.