I was stupid! TV girl who halted riderless racehorse
IT WAS a dramatic moment at the track which made thousands of TV viewers gasp with horror.
But presenter Hayley Moore was unruffled yesterday after being dragged along the ground as she bravely halted a runaway racehorse.
And Hayley, who came perilously close to being hit by the thundering hooves, admitted: “It was a pretty stupid thing to do really.”
The 30-year-old sprang into action to grab riderless Give Em A Clump’s reins after it took off at Chepstow racecourse.
Heroics
She was hauled over the grass in her elegant summery dress but gamely clung on until the horse, which had unseated jockey Fran Berry, slowed to a halt.
Luckily, neither she nor the horse was hurt as the incident unfolded live on Sky Sports’ At The Races.
Her heroics, which were captured by a cameraman, went viral on the internet.
Hayley said: “I just acted instinctively because I didn’t want him or other horses to be injured. He was coming down a kind of a funnel so it was a good opportunity.
“Then I just thought, ‘Right go for it and try and grab the reins.’ I did, but unfortunately it was probably the fastest-moving horse I’ve ever tried to catch. So I lost my balance.”
Hayley, who comes from an equestrian background, added: “I am used to catching horses but I’ve never tried to do it before in a dress.
“It was a good length and I kept my modesty – it could have been very embarrassing.”
The presenter, who expertly stripped the horse of its saddle after it stopped, is the daughter of trainer Gary Moore, sister of jockeys Ryan and Jamie Moore and a top amateur rider herself.
One of her grandfathers was a horse trainer in Brighton and the other was 1970s Daily Express feature writer Bernard Workman.
Chepstow course clerk Keith Otteson said: “It was a hell of a tackle. She was brave – too brave, really. But luckily she was fine.”