Ex-jockey back on the racetrack

Former champion jockey Lance O'Sullivan paid a whistle-stop visit to Wanganui yesterday - to run around the city's racecourse.

O'Sullivan and his companions, Jason Fleming, Andre Klein and Simon Cooper, stopped in Wanganui as part of the Trackwalk tour, a fundraising effort for the Catwalk Spinal Cord Injury Trust.

The four men, all connected with the racing industry, are raising money for Catwalk by running around every licensed thoroughbred racecourse in New Zealand.

They aim to raise $50,000.

A group of about 20 supporters turned up at the Wanganui racecourse to run the 1.8km track with the team.

O'Sullivan was almost an hour late to Wanganui because he and his team had been diverted to the old Bulls racecourse for an extra fundraising run.

O'Sullivan admitted to being "pretty exhausted" when he arrived in Wanganui but said the tour had been going very well.

But there was no time to rest - after Wanganui they were headed for racecourses in Waverley, Hawera, Stratford and New Plymouth to finish the day.

The Trackwalk tour will finish at Ellerslie racecourse in Auckland on Saturday, six days and 51 racecourses after it began.