Horse runs without jockey at Seoul racecourse, prompting refund of W1.67b in bets

A racehorse bolted from the starting gate without its jockey and ran the full course alongside other horses at Seoul Racecourse in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi Province, on Oct. 10.

The Korea Racing Authority detected the irregularity shortly after the start but did not halt the race, waiting until all horses had crossed the finish line before declaring the result void. The incident triggered refunds on approximately 1.67 billion won ($1.26 million) in betting tickets.

According to documents submitted to People Power Party lawmaker Lee Yang-su of the National Assembly's Agriculture, Food, Rural Affairs, Oceans and Fisheries Committee, No. 7 horse Narsha Victor left the starting gate in the first race that day with no jockey aboard.

The gate opened before the jockey could mount the horse, sending it onto the track riderless. The horse had been among the second- or third-most favored entries in the race and had drawn considerable attention from bettors.

The racing authority noticed the problem immediately after the start and consulted the chief starter on whether to declare a false start, but no such declaration was made. Only after the race concluded and officials reviewed video footage did they confirm the horse had run without a jockey, at which point they voided the result.

After the void was declared, bettors who had picked the correct outcome lodged complaints, saying the starting procedures had been far too lax.

Lee said this was not the first such starting failure. On Jan. 15, 2023, during the ninth race in Seoul, some starting gates failed to open or opened late. On Dec. 26 last year, the sixth race at Busan-Gyeongnam Racecourse got underway with No. 11 horse still outside the starting gate.

Both incidents revealed the same pattern of failures: inadequate checks on whether starts were clean, delays in declaring false starts, and poor race monitoring and communication. Yet disciplinary measures against those responsible amounted to nothing more than cautions and warnings.

Each incident also left some betting tickets unreturned. From the 2023 incident, 2.44 million won remains unrefunded; from last year's incident, 2.65 million won. The latest incident has left an additional 12.15 million won unreturned, bringing the total outstanding refunds across all three incidents to 17.23 million won.

"The fact that the race was allowed to continue to the end even after an irregularity was detected — with a horse that had no jockey — represents a fundamental failure of race management," Lee said. "The authority must improve its start verification procedures, its false-start decision-making, and its on-site communication systems, and it must also take responsibility for returning all outstanding refunds."