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By Mail Foreign Service
Hare of the dog: The moment a real hare dashed on to the track at a greyhound race in Victoria, Australia Spare a thought for the poor punters who put a bet on Ginny Lou in the Finer Fruit Stakes in Australia earlier this week.
The racing greyhound was coming a respectable third at the track in Shepperton, Victoria, when she was suddenly confronted with two hares to chase.
Spectators were just as confused as the wild hare ran across the track, straight into the path of a thundering pack of eight greyhounds trained to chase him down.
The rest of the dogs continued to chase the fake but Jinny Lou -showing a taste for reality over fantasy - veered off on a mission to run the real hare down.
Bad hare day: While the rest of the pack chases the fake hare, third-placed Ginny Lou veers off to chase the real thingShe jumped from the pack and vanished from the field, chasing her prey towards the outside fence.
Racing officials were forced to declare the Finer Fruit Stakes a non-race.
Incredulous bookies had to refund all bets on the race - up to £18,500.
Though ground staff launched a hunt for the pesky intruder, it managed to outwit both them and Ginny Lou and make good its escape.
Ginny's trainer Scott Stefanos said that after the race he didn't know whether to laugh or cry about the incident.
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