WHEN IT IS TOO CLOSE A CALL FOR COMFORT. DARRYL CARRISON'S ACTIONS AVERT A CATASTROPHE AT QUORN

By Graham Potter | Saturday, August 16, 2025

Catastrophe averted.

That was an outcome that had everybody at the Quorn racetrack exhaling a deep breath of relief after they had witnessed a heart-stopping, breath-taking spectacle which could have ended very badly.

Front and centre, quite literally, of this extraordinary episode was Morphettville based trainer Darryl Carrison who ran onto the track waving his jumper to divert the runaway five-year-old mare After towards the outside running rail.

After, who after being scratched at the barriers, had broken away from her handler and was charging the wrong way down the track on a collision course with the racing field that was now entering the final stages of the race.

And there was Carrison, bravely putting himself in harm’s way in-between the runaway horse and the closing pack … a distance which was diminishing with each passing second … until he succeeded in getting After to change course which allowed the field to pass without a major incident, although it that close a call everybody involved had definitely been flirting with disaster.

“I saw this loose horse galloping back, and I thought this is going to go pear-shaped unless someone gets this horse off the track, or slows it down somehow,” Carrison told ABC Radio Adelaide.

"I just jumped over the fence. I ripped my jumper off. By this time it had got into the straight, going the wrong way.

“As it was coming towards me, it was going flat out. Probably about twelve metres before she got to me, she lifted her head up and noticed me. It was going far too quick for me to grab hold of her, so I flicked my jumper again to get it off the racing line and get it to the outside rail.

"If it was on the rail, half of them wouldn't have seen it, so who knows what would have happened.

“A few people were panicking about where the horses were coming up behind me, but I was quite aware where they were.”

It all ended well on that front, but the incident did have a consequence though.

After some deliberation and discussion with all of the jockeys involved, stewards declared the race to be null and void, determining that the majority of runners were eased by their riders to avoid the loose horse, which impacted on the finishing order of the race.