York’s May meeting was delayed on Thursday after Galeron, a six-year-old gelding, flipped over and got his head stuck in a hedge while heading out for the £70,000 Hambleton Handicap. The horse became upset as he left the parade ring, reared and fell backwards into the hedge in front of racegoers.

Track staff quickly put a screen around Galeron while vets worked to free him, and the race was held up by 10 minutes before he was released and able to walk to the veterinary unit for further checks. He had been due to run under apprentice Jack Callan, but became a non-runner as the field went on to be won by the Saffie Osborne-ridden Maybe Not.

Broadcast reporter Rishi Persad described it as a pretty nasty incident, saying Galeron had his head stuck in the hedge and had been sedated while staff tried to adjust the railings and get him out safely. He said the other horses were sent down to the start through the pre-parade ring after the area by the parade ring was blocked off.

Callan called it a bit of a freak accident and said the bush softened Galeron’s landing, even if it left the horse stuck for longer than anyone would have liked. “The horse comes first and everyone has done a fantastic job to get him out and back up,” he said.

The episode was the kind that briefly halts a meeting but lingers with those who saw it, because the priorities were clear from the moment the horse went down: get him free, get him checked and make sure he was safe before anything else continued. Galeron’s next step was veterinary assessment, not the race he had been headed to run.