Life on the West Island - Off track

This week, Life on the West Island was all set to produce a deeply thoughtful column about our nation’s tax and housing policies, when a story too good to miss broke early on Thursday morning in our feed from Crikey.com. We felt duty bound to bring it to our readers’ attention:

A smatter of late-night commuters stood on a Sydney train platform at a few minutes to midnight on Friday, avoiding eye contact with each other as rain pummelled down around them. Some may have been thinly disguising inebriation from a few after-work drinks gone a little too long, others may have only just clocked off from restaurant jobs and were dreaming of the cold pizza in their fridge. Suddenly, a horse walked onto the Warwick Farm platform, peering up and down before cantering the length of it. Commuters stared. After all, what is one to do when one encounters a horse where a horse does not belong? Who among us can fashion a quick lasso from the fire hose and mount the wily beast? I can barely walk a confident dog, for goodness sake. The train pulled up, and the horse “regarded it,” as reported in the Sydney Morning Herald as “not unlike a passenger”.

But then it took off. The horse was headed straight for a man in a blue shirt, whose eyes presumably bulged out of his head like a Looney Tunes character before he sprinted out of the train station. Meanwhile, train drivers nearby were receiving the strangest radio message in a long time warning about a horse on the tracks. The cops turned up at the station with a man haltering and loading it into a truck to go home. It was super weird, Sydney Trains boss Matthew Longland told the paper, no doubt met by a nod of agreement by reporter Angus Dalton on the other end of the phone. Usually it’s cows we find on the train tracks, Longland added. Wait, what? He continued that we were lucky the horse didn’t try and board the train — indeed it stayed behind the yellow line the whole time. The unharmed horse was returned home to the neighhhhh-bouring farm.

Intrigued, we looked for the report in the Sydney Morning Herald, which, although a little more circumspect, did not completely overlook the humour in the unusual situation. With a fairly straight face, under the heading of Wrong kind of track: Escaped racehorse shocks commuters on Sydney train platform, journalist Angus Dalton wrote:

Bizarre footage has emerged of a horse on the loose at a Sydney train station, alarming passengers and at one point chasing a commuter down the platform at a canter.

Under the cover of the Black Nor’easter throttling Sydney with a month’s worth of rain, the fare-dodging horse entered Warwick Farm station seven minutes before midnight last Friday.

For several minutes, the horse trotted up and down the platform, parading a fetching beige raincoat as a few dumbfounded late-night passengers leapt back from its path.

Amid the fracas, a train pulled up into the station.

CCTV shows the horse stood and regarded the train for a moment – not unlike a passenger waiting to board – before taking off again down the platform.

As the horse ran alongside the train, a male commuter in a light blue shirt was forced to make a break for it, exiting the platform as the horse ran towards him.

By three minutes to midnight, radio communications were crackling between NSW Transport’s Security Control Centre and the police. Train drivers were put on notice about a possible horse racing along the wrong kind of track.

Then they called in the cavalry.

An unmarked police car arrived at the station at 12.07am. Minutes later, a man appeared and haltered the horse, which was loaded into a blue transport truck bound for its stables.

“From time to time, we do find animals on tracks, particularly cows,” chief executive of Sydney Trains Matt Longland said.

“This particular one though was a little bit unusual, a horse on a suburban platform, and actually while the train was stopping at the station. It’s a wonder the horse didn’t try and board the train to be honest.”

The horse escaped from the stables of Annabel Neasham Racing, which are next to the station. Longland said the runaway horse may have been attracted by the station’s bright lights.

“Thankfully, we were able to warn our train drivers to look out for animals on the tracks,” he said. “We were able to catch the horse not long after that.

“The good news is that the horse was captured, and obviously healthy and unharmed.”

Racing NSW chief steward Steve Railton has spoken to Neasham about the incident.

“Trainer Annabel Neasham told stewards that an unknown person released three racehorses and a stable pony from one of her stables on Friday night,” Railton said.

“One of the racehorses left the vicinity of the stable complex, while the others were captured. She immediately became aware that the horse was loose and contacted local police.”

Neasham has been contacted for comment.

Transport Minister Jo Haylen thanked transport staff for aiding the quick capture of the horse and praised the 400-kilogram animal for its relatively good behaviour.

“At least it stood behind the yellow line,” Haylen said.

Next week, we’ll stop horsing around and get back to serious West Island policy issues. In the meantime, enjoy the ride…