Three people were hospitalized Saturday after a racehorse crashed into a fence near where they were standing when the animal panicked prior to an race event in a country town west of Sydney.
The horse was being led around an enclosure at Towac Park Racecourse in the city of Orange, 130 miles (209 kilometers) west of Sydney, on Saturday afternoon when the incident occurred, the Central Western Daily reported.
The spectators taken to a hospital after the 3:45 p.m. incident were an elderly man who suffered chest pain, a 50-year-old woman with a broken ankle and a 20-year-old woman with a leg injury.
Brian Buckley, a local horse trainer who saw the incident, told the Daily the horse appeared to panic before backing into a fence where a lot of people were standing.
"The horse panicked ... It just pushed the fence over and the people couldn't get away," he said. "It was very traumatic for a few people."
The incident took place before the running of the day's fifth race, with racing resuming after a short delay.
The condition of the horse was not known.
