OSKI left racing fans stunned as he snatched defeat from the jaws of victory in a crazy finish at Taunton.
The well-backed 9-2 shot had the 2m7f handicap chase in the bag – but he slammed on the brakes in the last strides to throw it away.
It is not the first time a horse has veered off a straight line after the last at Taunton.
The entrance to the racecourse stables is positioned just before the winning post and runners occasionally try to head for an early bath.
But few horses have done it as dramatically as eight-year-old Oski, who left poor jockey Max Kendrick helpless.
The horse was brought through with a steady challenge and jumped into the lead over the final fence.
But he immediately began to pull himself up and started to hang violently across the course, coming almost to a standstill up the run-in.
That left the 10-3 favourite Little Red Lion with an open goal and he ran on late to land the spoils, with Oski even losing out on second place to Broadclyst.
Some punters saw the funny side on Twitter – but some were left with burnt fingers as the horse traded at 1-100 in running on Betfair.
One joked: “Oski was offski.”
Another said: “What was Oski thinking!”
One punter fumed: “Shocking to watch and embarrassing for Kendrick. Badly judged.”
While another Tweeted: “Anybody who backed oski has surely just launched there tv out the window.”
More to follow
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