10 August 2023 , 09:27
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Top jockey Jye McNeill had to run for cover when a bird took a dislike to him.
The Melbourne Cup winner was walking the track at Bendigo, in Victoria, part of a regular routine by jockeys to check out the ground conditions before racing starts.
McNeill was in the straight when he encountered an unexpected guest.
A plover seemed to take a dislike to him and decided to engage in the only way it knew how.
It began to dive bomb the rider and when McNeill tried to goad the bird by flapping his arms in the air, the plover took another shot.
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In his bid to escape its attention, McNeill tried to sprint off but ended up falling to the ground before eventually reaching the relative safety of the parade ring.
McNeill later admitted the track walk had some benefits as he rode a winner on the card.
“I had a bit of an experience before the first race where I got attacked by a few birds and got tripped over and felt all the areas of the ground as I was rolling around," the 28-year-old McNeil told .
“I was scared. The worst thing is when I went out to walk the track there was half a dozen jockeys coming back.
“Not one of them warned me there were some plovers attacking everyone on the track and there I was doing my best by myself..”
He added: "It was an awful experience. I don’t know if I’m going to able to walk the track again.”