Horse swims 11km off Brisbane after dumping his rider

REBEL Rover may well be the best named racehorse in Australia, after he dumped his rider and swam 11km off Brisbane. But his wild rampage didn’t end there.

REBEL Rover may well be the best named racehorse in Australia, after he dumped his rider and swam 11km in Moreton Bay.

The bizarre sequence of events began off Sandgate, north of Brisbane, on Thursday.

Rebel Rover, who is described as “crazy” by his trainer Brad Smith, escaped from jockey Jackson Morris and then spent two hours in the bay before being rescued by a crew including Volunteer Marine Rescue and Brisbane Water Police.

The horse tried to escape again as he neared landfall, but Morris averted another disaster by keeping a tight grip on him, by this time with an intrigued crowd looking on.

But Rebel Rover still had another surprise in his bag of tricks, ‘head-butting’ Smith’s father Gary and knocking him unconscious as he was being loaded onto the float.

“It was a very interesting morning to say the least,” Smith said.

“He’s not the type of horse to strike or kick, head-butting is more his go and he lined dad up and knocked him out cold.”

Happily, Smith’s father was discharged from hospital on Friday morning.

As for Rebel Rover, he was as bright as a button on Friday, still in a playful mood after returning to his box.

“He was pig-rooting and bucking like it was one big adventure,” Smith said.

“He must have the lung capacity of an absolute freak. Normally horses would give up after about 15 minutes, but he still had all that energy even after the two hours.

“He’s been a bit of a problem horse. He’s had two barrier bars and he can be difficult to work on the track. Jackson has a good affinity with him, but the horse is crazy. It doesn’t take much to startle him and that’s what happened yesterday. He just turned around, flipped Jackson off and started swimming.

“Jackson went out with the rescue team and actually dived into the bay to bring him back closer to the boat. He did an amazing job.”

Smith hopes he can finish the adventurous 48 hours on a high when his promising horse Sharpe Hussler runs at Doomben tomorrow.

Off the back of a highly impressive last start Ipswich win, Sharpe Hussler has been marked favourite.

“He was a very immature horse and took a long time to put it all together,” Smith said.

“He always showed the ability but was doing a lot wrong and really had no idea.

“Now he’s grown up he is living up to what we always hoped.”