Video: Horse loose on a busy Mississauga street escaped from racetrack

Mississauga | Community | Police | Traffic |

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Published May 31, 2023 at 10:17 am

horse mississauga street

A horse seen on a busy Mississauga street escaped from Woodbine Racetrack.

The horse was spotted heading westbound on Derry Road in Malton around 10:30 p.m. on May 26, a Peel Regional Police spokesperson tells insauga.com.

The large animal, clearly enjoying its free rein, caught a few people by surprise and may have caused an accident.

“i almost just hit a horse driving down my RESIDENTIAL street in Mississauga what the f**k is going on,” one person wrote on Twitter.

But some saw the humour in the sighting.

“Im so glad I live in Brampton where we don’t have all this horsing around,” one person wrote.

“At least he’s staying in his lane,” another person joked.

Thankfully, no one collided with the horse on Mississauga streets, police say.

“There was no injury to the horse or anyone else, nor were there any collisions as a result,” the police spokesperson says.

It turns out the horse was from the nearby Woodbine Racetrack, which is on the other side of Highway 427 in Etobicoke, Jamie Dykstra, director of communications for Woodbine Entertainment tells insauga.com.

“The horse escaped its stall in one of our barns and then left our property through a gate that was broken,” Dykstra says. “That gate has now been fixed.”

Fortunately, Gillian Crawford, wife of Woodbine jockey Juan Crawford, saw the horse on the street and used her experience dealing with horses to lead efforts to safely secure the horse,” Dykstra added. “We are very grateful for her efforts.”

Woodbine Security then picked up the horse in a van and returned it to the stables.

The incident caught the attention of the councillor for the area.

“I’ve seen it all. You can’t beat Malton as the place to be on a Saturday evening,” Ward 5 Councillor Carolyn Parrish said in a tweet. “The visit could have had something to do with Woodbine Race Track, with extensive stables, just over the bridge. Thank goodness this lovely creature wasn’t hurt, because of caring bystanders/police.”

The horse was not injured and is doing fine following the incident, Dykstra said.

Dykstra adds that they are reviewing  protocols and procedures to ensure this doesn’t happen again.

Woodbine has anywhere from 1,600 to 2,000 horses stabled on the property every racing season and this hasn’t happened since 2002, Dykstra said.

“This is a very rare occurrence at Woodbine.”

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