• Mountain Views Mail
• Upper Yarra Mail

By Kath Gannaway

22nd December 2009 02:00:11 AM

The fox wouldn’t budge, and neither would the Healesville Race Club officials.

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“I’M sorry, I can’t let you in, not with that fox on your car!”

It was a new line for Healesville Racing Club’s vice-president, Anthony Schache, and one he least expected to have to use on one of the senior bookies.

It seems, even a hitch-hiking fox wasn’t going to stop the unnamed bookmaker from missing out on his favourite spot, or the first race.

Mr Schache said the bookie, a regular at Healesville, hit the fox as he was driving to the races on Saturday, 12 December, and it became lodged on the radiator.

Already running late, with the fox too scared to move and the bookie too scared to move it, he jumped back in the car and kept driving.

“He knew it was there, he just couldn’t get it out so he decided to let our vet deal with it,” Mr Schache told the Mail.

But the wily bookie was outfoxed when the club invoked its “No dogs” policy.

“He was furious with me for not letting him in, but there’s no way with kids everywhere and horses, that we were going to have a fox running amok … no way … no dogs, no foxes,” Mr Schache said.

Was anyone concerned about the poor fox?

“The bookmaker? Naaaaaaaaah … he’s a bookmaker,” Mr Schache said. “He was just worried about being late.”

Despite the mounting crowd of disbelieving onlookers, the fox wasn’t too concerned by this stage either, according to Mr Schache.

“He just sat there, looking around, happy as Larry,” he said.

In the end it was the fox that tired of all the fuss first. With the vet on his way and the car now parked out of the way by the creek, he made his escape, Brer Rabbit-like, into the blackberries.

And, was there an omen for the punters in all that. You bet! Vixenite, ridden by Paul Koumis came home in the sixth to pay $4.60 for the win.

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