A stalls handler cheated injury when the horses were released to race while he ran across.
The worker had a lucky escape completing the loading process at Dieppe on Tuesday. Footage from Sky Sports Racing shows the handler slotting the final horse into place ahead of the D'etretat Maiden Stakes.
After he led the outsider Myriade forward, the employee exited under stall six and jogged across to the side of the track. But just as he passed box ten, where Lookingfortrouble was standing ready to race, the starter let the field go.
In the clip of the incident, the handler appears stunned as the gates fly back and he stumbles out of the way. Fortunately the rider of Lookingfortrouble seemed to notice what was happening and his horse missed the break.
The error was also picked up by commentator Ian Bartlett, who said: "Ooh and he has let them go there with the stalls handler in front of the two runners on the outside. Lookingfortrouble slightly shying away after that calamity."
Next to Lookingfortrouble in the stalls was the eventual winner Havana Angel (9-4f), trained by Amy Murphy. Based in Britain, Murphy has a satellite yard in France and her sprinter posted an impressive performance.
Not inconvenienced by the start, Havana Angel raced smoothly for jockey Tony Piccone, who crossed over towards the rail when in the clear. Following up places at Catterick and Ripon, the juvenile lengthened her stride and was nudged out to win by nine lengths.
Murphy called it a "facile and worthy win" on social media – and Havana Angel scooped around £8,500 for connections.
Lookingfortrouble showed some pace on the outside but quickly faded out of contention. The incident comes just days after William Buick was smacked in the head by a horse in the Epsom stalls on Saturday.
Favourite to win the jockeys' title this season, Buick was about to race in the opener on Derby day when the neighbouring horse, Approachability, reared up and struck him. As he was still reeling, the starter let the horses go and Buick's mount Blue Trail exited riderless. He then slightly interfered with the runner-up Grenobleo on the run to the line, as Swilcan Bridge held onto a narrow advantage.
“He said that he was hit on the top of the head by the horse in the adjacent stall,” Racing TV Lydia Hislop said after speaking to Buick. “He just needed 30 seconds to collect himself.
“He said that to the starter and he said that other jockeys next to him had said that to the starter. He described it as 'very dangerous' because he was half on, half off the horse. And he said it was 'a very bad mistake’.”
The post-race report, published by the British Horseracing Authority, read: "Having heard their evidence, the stewards accepted that Approachability, drawn six, had thrown its head to the left hitting the head of Buick, resulting in Buick becoming temporarily incapacitated and distributing his weight onto the left side of the starting stalls running board and consequently not being fully mounted when the start was effected.
"This caused Blue Trail to leave the starting stalls riderless and as such was deemed to be a non-runner and therefore withdrawn."
