"What's With Horse No. 7?" Horse Runs Without Jockey, Forcing KRA to Refund 1.6 Billion Won

At the Seoul Racecourse on the 10th, a riderless horse was seen galloping alongside other racehorses right in the middle of the track.

Despite detecting anomalies right after the start, the Korea Racing Authority (KRA) continued the race, only declaring it void after all the racehorses had crossed the finish line.

Due to this incident, betting tickets worth approximately 1.67 billion won became eligible for refunds.

According to data submitted by the KRA to Representative Lee Yang-soo of the People Power Party, a member of the National Assembly's Agriculture, Food, Rural Affairs, Oceans and Fisheries Committee, horse No. 7 Narsha Victor started without a jockey during the first race at the Seoul Racecourse on the 10th.

Although the KRA detected an irregularity immediately after the start and inquired with the chief starter whether it constituted grounds for a voided start, no such declaration was made.

It was only after reviewing the footage following the conclusion of the race that officials confirmed the absence of a jockey and officially declared the race void.

Representative Lee pointed out that this is not the first starting-gate accident.

On January 15, 2023, during the ninth race at the Seoul Racecourse, some starting gates failed to open or opened late. On December 26 of last year, during the sixth race at the Busan-Gyeongnam Racecourse, a racecourse event began while horse No. 11 had not even entered the starting gate.

Failures in checking normal starts, delays in declaring voided starts, and poor race monitoring and situation sharing were also identified in those past instances.

However, disciplinary measures against those responsible reportedly amounted to nothing more than official cautions and warnings.

Following each accident, some betting tickets also went unrefunded.

Unrefunded amounts stood at 2,435,300 won from the 2023 accident and 2,654,800 won from the accident last year.

In the latest accident as well, 12,148,900 won remained unrefunded, bringing the total unrefunded amount across the three incidents to 17,231,000 won.

Representative Lee emphasized that proceeding with the race to the end despite noticing abnormalities when a horse started without a jockey is a failure in the fundamentals of race management. He urged authorities to improve the systems for start verification, void-start judgments, and on-site communication, while taking responsible measures to issue refunds for the unrefunded amounts.
(Photo provided by Representative Lee Yang-soo's office, Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.